Earlier today T-Mobile launched Data Stash at their Un-Carrier 8 event and briefly touched on some of the improvements they have made to their data network during the past year. As a follow-up to that presentation, T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray took to the company’s official blog to share some additional details about how the carrier grew during 2014 and what to look forward to in 2015.
Neville notes that is was only a year ago that T-Mobile was trailing Verizon and AT&T in LTE network speed. The companies engineers were challenged to change that and to expand T-Mobile’s coverage during 2014. The target for T-Mobile was coverage that blanketed 250 million people in the U.S. and with a reach of 260 million today, the goal was achieved.
In addition to the newly extended reach of the LTE network, T-Mobile has optimized the network so it routinely tests faster than competitors. The carrier also began working on their Wideband LTE technology to speed things up even beyond traditional 4G LTE speeds. That service now covers 121 metro areas, including the recently lit up New York metro area. T-Mobile also made use of 700 MHz spectrum acquired last spring to launch low-band LTE in Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C.
Ray says that during 2015, T-Mobile’s LTE coverage should reach 280 million people by mid-year and 300 million by the end of the year. The company is also working with device manufacturers to ensure all new devices added to the portfolio during 2015 are Band-12 capable so they can tap into the expanding low-band LTE coverage.
In addition to improvements to the network coverage and speed, T-Mobile also introduced some new features to help customers. The company’s Voice over LTE (VoLTE) service, Wi-Fi calling and in-flight texting were launched during 2014.
Ray notes that T-Mobile customers use an average of 3.5 GB of data per month, far surpassing other carriers. He says this is a sign of strength for the carrier as customers make use of the services available to them.
Anyone out there thinking about making the switch to T-Mobile during 2015?
source: T-Mobile
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