T-Mobile USA (DTEGY) claims that the carrier is doubling its theoretical peak download speed in its 4G network to 42 Mbps for the metropolitan Austin area. The company also said the increase in download speeds is going live in 51 other cities across the U.S.
T-Mobile launched several 4G networks nationally last year, promoting peak theoretical download speeds of 21 Mbps. According to the carrier, “real-world” speeds generally factored in-between five and 12 Mbps at the launch, which would also double under the upgrades.
RootMetrics, an independent service that measures and ranks optimal cell coverage in major cities across the United States, released a report on the Chicago market on Monday, which is one of the 51 other markets where T-Mobile is launching upgrades.
The RootMetrics report cited T-Mobile’s 4G network delivers average download speeds of 3 Mbps in Chicago, compared with 9.2 Mbps for Verizon Wirless (VZ), 3.2 Mbps for Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) and 1.9 Mbps for AT&T (T).
RootMetrics released a report on Dallas in late April with Sprint taking top honors in Big D with average download speeds of 3.3 Mbps. Trailing behind were T-Mobile at 2.2 Mbps, AT&T Mobility at 1.75 Mbps, and Verizon Wireless at 750 Kbps.
Of course, T-Mobile is the focus of congressional hearings concerning Dallas-based AT&T Inc.’s proposed $39 billion buyout bid of the company. If approved, the sale would propel AT&T as the largest carrier in subscribers by far, with as many as 120 million U.S. customers.
T-Mobile said the strides to improve coverage in Austin will provide customers with more reliable, faster and consistent speeds, and additional capacity.
Would you like all your dreams to come true? Follow Marc Speir on twitter @truthorcon.
