T-Mobile ups Android Ante with G2, First HPSA+ Smartphone

By Nick Mokey Published August 18, 2010

T-Mobile may have been the first to the Android party, but after Verizon showed up with a three-pack of Droids and Sprint tapped a keg of 4G, life just hasn’t been the same for the quiet purveyor of phones like the Cliq XT and myTouch 3G. Now T-Mobile is making another go at Android glory with a successor to the phone that started it all – and it has a new trick up its sleeve.

The carrier let word slip back in July that the successor to the G1, aptly named the G2, would carry HSPA+ compliance, which will allow it to leverage the full speed of T-Mobile’s quasi-4G network. Now it has posted a formal teaser page for the G2, including a murky profile rendering of the upcoming device.

Recommended Videos

“The T-Mobile G2 will deliver tight integration with Google services and break new ground as the first smartphone designed to run at 4G speeds on our new HSPA+ network,” the page states. Unfortunately, that’s about all it states, for the moment.

Given the recent leak of benchmarks for the HTC Glacier – an upcoming T-Mobile device that nearly triples the performance of the HTC Evo – it’s possible that the Glacier is the G2.

T-Mobile claims the backhaul upgrades it made in order to put HSPA+ in place benefit all its 3G customers, only HSPA+ compliant devices are capable of pushing the pedal to the floor on the network. For the moment, that elite fraternity includes only the webConnect Rocket and Rocket 2.0 USB data sticks – and soon, the G2. According to its teaser page, T-Mobile will provide additional details in the coming weeks.

Topics

Editor in Chief

As Digital Trends’ Editor in Chief, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team covering every gadget under the sun, along with…

Mobile

Your next T-Mobile bill might be more expensive

We have bad news for you if you have an older T-Mobile wireless plan. According to internal company documents obtained by The Mobile Report, rates for your plan are going up by $2 to $5 per month.

Customers with a legacy Simple Choice, ONE, or Magenta plan will likely experience price increases. The increased price applies to each line, meaning that if you have four lines, you could potentially see a monthly increase of up to $20 per lmonth. CNET also corroborated the report with its own sources.

Mobile

Have T-Mobile? Your 5G service is about to get much faster

U.S. map illustrating T-Mobile's 5G Ultra Capacity network expansion.

T-Mobile’s 5G network already offers unmatched 5G speeds and coverage throughout the U.S., with 98% of the population covered by some flavor of T-Mobile’s 5G and more than 90% benefiting from its higher-speed 5G Ultra Capacity (5G UC) network.

That translates to the “Uncarrier” taking first place in 5G performance in 46 U.S. states. However, T-Mobile isn’t content to sit at 90% coverage. It’s been working steadily to increase the footprint of its 5G UC network to reach even further, and is bringing those top speeds to areas previously served only by its lower-frequency 5G Extended Range network.
A ‘Massive 5G Boost’

Mobile

T-Mobile just set another 5G speed record

T-Mobile’s rivals may be nipping at its heels in the 5G race, but the Uncarrier is determined to stay ahead of the game. It not only boasts the fastest and most expansive 5G network in the U.S., but it’s actively working on technologies that will help it reach even greater peak speeds.

Two years ago, T-Mobile used a relatively new technique known as 5G Carrier Aggregation (5G CA) to achieve the kind of 3Gbps download speeds on midband frequencies that had previously been the exclusive domain of extremely high (and extremely short-range) mmWave technologies. Now, it’s chalked up another 5G first by taking advantage of the latest developments to shatter the traditional cap on upload speeds over sub-6GHz frequencies.
T-Mobile's newest 5G record