Skip to main content

Most T-Mobile customers should have 4G LTE by mid-2015, says CEO

t mobile one price change
Image used with permission by copyright holder

T-Mobile is in it to win it. The fourth largest wireless network in the United States plans to convert its entire slow 2G/Edge network to high-speed 4G LTE in the next year and a half, according to a blog post. The network to use spectrum it purchased from Verizon earlier this year to power the expanded coverage.

By overlaying its 4G LTE network over its 2G “EDGE” network, T-Mobile wants to bring faster speeds to more U.S. markets, with the company ideally having half of the upgrade finished by the end of 2014. By mid-2015, it hopes to have the upgrade “substantially complete,” though the 2G network won’t disappear into the ether.

Recommended Videos

However, we can’t have T-Mobile releasing a statement without it making an odd comment, and it’s no different this time. According to T-Mobile CEO and all-around crazy man John Legere, Verizon is “cherry-picking” a single technology (LTE) in order to show that Verizon’s network is the best. T-Mobile claims broader 4G coverage due to its 4G HSPA+ network, which is larger than its 4G LTE network.

“Verizon’s ink blots massively understate our coverage and don’t begin to represent the actual customer experience on T-Mobile’s network,” said Legere. In response, T-Mobile kicked off a new marketing campaign which highlights how strong its network is and specifically calls out Verizon’s ads, which have street-walking consumers picking which coverage map more accurately depicts the United States.

T-Mobile hopes to cover 250 million people across the U.S. by the end of the year and plans to take legal action against Verizon.

Williams Pelegrin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…
Best mobile hotspots for travel in 2022
Family using a mobile hot spot feat image.

If you're a certified road warrior or hardcore traveler, mobile hotspots are now essential gear. Whether you’re traveling to a remote place and need to stay up to date with your emails or visiting a city and wish to avoid public Wi-Fi, mobile hotspots are for you. While your new smartphone likely has a mobile hotspot built-in, standalone Wi-Fi hotspots are more flexible, especially for multiple devices and phones with network data caps. With a hotspot, you can connect your laptop, phone, tablet, or Wi-Fi-connected camera without component battery drain. We found some excellent hotspots for you to choose from.

The proliferation of 5G networks has increased the prevalence of 5G hotspots. If 4G LTE is not cutting it for your needs, have a look at our list of the best 5G hotspots.

Read more
T-Mobile’s 5G Ultra Capacity network has four times the coverage of Verizon and AT&T
T-Mobile smartphone.

Last week, a report from Ookla revealed that T-Mobile's 5G and 4G LTE networks are nearly twice as fast as those of Verizon and AT&T. Today, Opensignal released the results of a new study that reveals one of the most significant reasons for T-Mobile's lead.

5G services cover a much wider range of frequencies than older cellular technologies, each with unique advantages and disadvantages. Since low-band 5G frequencies have considerably more range than higher frequencies and generally share the same airwaves as 4G/LTE services, all three carriers have leveraged this spectrum to provide their extended nationwide coverage. T-Mobile calls this its 5G Extended Range network, Verizon uses the term 5G Nationwide, and AT&T just calls it 5G.

Read more
T-Mobile’s 5G and 4G LTE networks are nearly twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T
The T-Mobile logo on a smartphone.

Ookla's second-quarter market report has just gone live, revealing that T-Mobile still has a commanding lead over rivals Verizon and AT&T when it comes to offering the fastest and most consistent speeds throughout the U.S.

T-Mobile took the top spot for performance on both its 5G and 4G/LTE networks, with median download speeds of 187.33Mbps on 5G and 116.54Mbps across the board. Overall, that's nearly twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T, which clocked in at 59.67Mbps and 54.64Mbps, respectively. The Un-carrier also delivered the most consistent speeds of the bunch, with 85.7% of tests showing at least 5Mpbs download and 1Mbps upload speeds.

Read more