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T-Mobile To Boost Its LTE Speeds To 400 Mbps (thenextweb.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the theory-of-relativity dept.

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Next Web: T-Mobile plans to boost its LTE speeds to up to 400 Mbps in the very near future. The Next Web reports: "The company is getting ready to boost its maximum theoretical internet speeds to become the faster carrier in the U.S. by a wide margin. The network will soon support theoretical speeds up to 400 Mbps -- nearly half the speed of Google Fiber. There's a two-pronged approach to the upgrade. First is incorporating 4x4 MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology, which will supposedly double the speed from the current 7-40 Mbps customers tend to experience with T-Mobile (about the same as Verizon with LTE-A). This upgrade is available now in 319 cities, although it's a moot point because only the S7 and S7 Edge will be able to use the tech via a software update "later this month." In October, the company will roll out 256 QAM support to the S7 and S7 Edge (and again, more phones later), which increases the amount of bits per transmission. T-Mobile says this will lead to theoretical maximum speeds of 400 Mbps." The Next Web followed-up with T-Mobile to ask about what the real-world speeds would be after the upgrade. The company says "customers can expect to see real world peak speeds of 190 Mbps," which is over four times current peaks speeds, but also far below the theoretical 400 Mbps.

1 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Range not speed by markdavis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    >"T-Mobile plans to boost its LTE speeds to up to 400 Mbps in the very near future."

    I don't care. Probably like most people, I would much rather have more coverage/range than crazy speed. Their precious 700Mhz didn't come to my 1.5+ million person area, and my area is certainly not alone. That means mediocre building penetration with existing service and spotty coverage in other areas.

    I like T-Mobile, but I wish they would focus on:

    * Maintaining low prices, and without catches.
    * Coverage/penetration/range.
    * Not penalizing people for not handing over direct access to their banking accounts, so-called "auto-pay".
    * Stopping with the gimmiky stuff like video transcoding, and the misuse of the word "unlimited".
    * Allow us to stop the incessant nagging text messages about "your bill is due" and "your bill is paid" and such.