T-Mobile now covers 75m people in 25 U.S. markets with 21 Mbps HSPA+: T-Mobile said this morning it's pushed its faster HSPA+ 3G network into a number of metro areas, large and small. L.A., Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Atlanta are notably large additions.
HSPA+ in T-Mobile's flavor has a raw data rate of 21 Mbps, and can deliver something like 5 to 8 Mbps (with 10 Mbps peaks) in third-party testing.
The webConnect Rocket USB modem is the only mobile broadband laptop connection device so far, and is available for purchase in all of these HSPA+ markets. T-Mobile says it has 15 HSPA 7.2 Mbps devices, with one smartphone able to use a 10 Mbps flavor. HSPA+ networks are backwards compatible down to the slowest HSPA speeds.
The firm has pushed aggressively on 3G data pricing, and currently lets you purchase a mobile broadband modem at full cost and then pay $40 per month for 5 GB of usage, including the ability to cancel without penalty. The 5 GB plan has no limits, but can be throttled by T-Mobile when you exceed 5 GB in a given month.
T-Mobile says it will cover 185m people with HSPA+ by the end of 2010, and has 210m people covered today with its HSPA 7.2 service. That's close on the heels of Sprint and AT&T, which claims slightly larger footprints, but still far shy of Verizon's dominance of 2G and 3G service coverage in the US.
The only comparable service alleging raw rates this high is Sprint/Clearwire's Clear offering, which plans to reach 120m people in the US during 2010.
[Note: This article originally stated HSPA+ 2010 coverage (185m people) as T-Mobile's current U.S. 3G coverage. It's been fixed.]
Cheryl Cole and will.i.am mockedAT&T Changes Plan: HSPA+ by End of 2010
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