The year 2010 promises to be the year of super-fast wireless networks. T-Mobile USA, the US subsidiary of German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom (DT), has joined the high-speed hoopla in the US as it has reportedly upgraded its nationwide 3G mobile broadband network to the HSPA 7.2 standard.
HSPA 7.2 offers peak theoretical download speeds of 7.2 megabits per second (Mbps), which has effectively doubled network throughput from the existing 3.6 Mbps. However, as the available bandwidth will be split among many users, speeds may differ in practical settings.
Although T-mobile USA’s 3G network is the smallest among the four big carriers in the US, it has already covered a population of 200 million. The company promises to be the first carrier to launch HSPA+ standard based 3.5G network in the US. T-mobile USA is currently conducting test runs of the network in Philadelphia, which if successfully deployed, would catapult network throughput by three-fold to offer peak downlink speeds of 21 Mbps.
Moreover, T-mobile USA plans to deploy 4G network based on the Long-Term Evolution (“LTE”) standard in 2011. The company’s bigger peers AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) also have embraced LTE, which is set to emerge as the next major generation of mobile broadband networks. The new HSPA 7.2 network opens the door for T-mobile USA for a smooth transition to HSPA+ and LTE.
With roughly 33.4 million customers, T-mobile USA is the fourth-largest carrier in the US and the first carrier to adopt Google’s (GOOG) Android platform. The company, which currently markets Android-based smartphones such as G1 and myTouch 3G, is the first offcial carrier for Google’s so called “Superphone” Nexus One (launched on Jan 5, 2010), a potential nemesis for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone.
T-mobile USA’s advancement to the 3G HSPA 7.2 network came at the right time as the new high-speed network will effectively complement the rollout of Nexus One, which runs high-bandwidth applications. Although the device currently only supports T-mobile USA’s 3G network in the US, Google has reportedly picked up US wireless kingpin Verizon as the second carrier.
The 3G network upgrade should result in higher ARPU (average revenue per user), higher minutes of use, and improved margins through greater network efficiency. Besides providing necessary support for the bandwidth-intensive devices, the 3G HSPA 7.2 network is expected to limit customer churn through expanded network coverage. This represents an encouraging prospect as T-mobile USA faces the challenges of stabilizing subscriber count.
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