T-Mobile has officially entered the 4G LTE market and is making its debut in seven major cities.
The fourth-largest carrier in the U.S. held an event in New York City on Tuesday touting itself as the "Un-carrier" among fellow brands. During the event, T-Mobile announced it will finally carry Apple's iPhone 5, new data plans, and 4G LTE.
Assisting T-Mobile's 4G LTE expansion will be five devices. The BlackBerry Z10, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and the upcoming Galaxy S4 will be among the carrier's first 4G LTE smartphones. T-Mobile also has the "T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot LTE" on deck, providing on-the-go Internet access for $29.99.
T-Mobile is looking to start big with their 4G LTE coverage. The first seven cities that have launched the "state-of-the-art" 4G LTE network are Baltimore; Houston; Kansas City; Las Vegas; Phoenix; San Jose, Calif.; and Washington, D.C.
While it is a start, the carrier hopes to reach 100 million Americans by the middle of summer and double that by the end of 2013.
"T-Mobile's 4G LTE deployment will complement its existing nationwide 4G network - which third-party tests show rivals or beats existing LTE networks - creating what T-Mobile expects to be the fastest 4G combination in the United States," the carrier stated. "T-Mobile 4G LTE devices will automatically and seamlessly transition to T-Mobile's nationwide 4G where LTE has not yet launched."
Latinos Post has been following the progress of T-Mobile's 4G LTE coverage. According to OpenSignal, their app correctly predicted three of the 4G LTE markets so far. OpenSignal stated they have located T-Mobile's 4G LTE coverage in Denver, New Orleans, New York, San Diego, and Seattle in addition to three confirmed by the carrier. It could be possible the additional cities will be part of T-Mobile's second phase in LTE expansion.
Verizon currently dominates the 4G LTE market, covering more than 480 markets across the country for more than 275 million people. Coming in second is AT&T with only 155 LTE markets while Sprint's numbers places it third with 67 LTE markets. If T-Mobile's projections are true, then it could surpass AT&T and Sprint, although bare in mind those two networks will be aggressively upgrading as well.
The New York City event also confirmed the iPhone 5. T-Mobile was the only carrier, of the four major U.S. carriers, to not carry the device since Apple entered the smartphone market in 2007. Starting April 12, T-Mobile will sell the iPhone 5.
"This is an important day for people who love their iPhone but can't stand the pain other carriers put them through to own one," said T-Mobile USA President and CEO John Legere. "We feel their pain. I've felt the pain. So we're rewriting the rules of wireless to provide a radically simple, affordable iPhone 5 experience - on an extremely powerful network."
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