T-Mobile gearing up to boost 4G LTE speeds by year's end

T-Mobile rolled out its 4G LTE network earlier this year, stating ambitious goals for coverage by the middle of the year, something it ultimately surpassed. It has been a couple of weeks since the carrier's New York City event, and the company has made a new announcement: most of its 4G LTE network will be getting a speed boost by the end of the year.

The speed increase will be achieved by widening its radio channels, having gone from its 2x5MHz channels to testing out a 2x10MHz channels this month. Furthermore, a spokesperson for the carrier told the folks over at Light Reading: "For testing purposes ... we have been briefly deploying and testing 10+10MHz of LTE in a few areas of [New York City]."

The testing was achieved by shifting some of its 3G spectrum to testing the faster network, then switching it back to normal after the testing was completed. By the end of the year, the 2x10MHz channels will not only be running in New York, but also "10+10 MHz of LTE in 90 percent of the top 25 markets by the end of the year."

T-Mobile has been pushing its 4G LTE network, having stated goals of covering 100 million people by the middle of this year, something it announced it had exceeded with coverage of over 157 million. As of July 10, the network coverage was available in 116 markets, including big cities like Chicago, Boston, LA, New York City, Seattle, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Dallas, and Philadelphia, among others.

The new goal was stated as being coverage for 200 million individuals in a minimum of 200 metropolitan areas by the end of 2013. For now, the carrier's CEO has taken to bragging on Twitter about T-Mobile's speeds, saying, "We tested 10+10 4G LTE in NYC 11th ave &21st. Let's see the others run this fast." The download speed? 61.19Mbps.

SOURCE: Light Reading