4G is in the air! Or, at least for T-Mobile, 4G speeds are in the air. While T-Mobile isn’t technically allowed to pitch their HSPA+ network as 4G, its speeds can exceed that of the networks that some carriers (read: Sprint) have been toting as 4G for the last few months.
This morning, T-Mobile is officially debuting their HSPA+ network in 15 new cities, from Los Angeles, CA to New Orleans, LA.
While a handful of places — New York, Philadelphia, Vegas, and Memphis, to name a few — are already blanketed in T-Mobile’s latest radio juice, the new roster is pretty impressive. If you’re in Atlanta, Houston, Seattle, Tampa, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, New Orleans, or Charleston, fire up your device and give it a speed test — chances are, you’re surrounded in 4G(ish) radiowaves right this second.
Speaking of devices: only certain ones will play friendly with the new network. Your 5 year old, contract-free mostly-broken phone? Probably won’t work. To name a few that will: the Behold II, myTouch/myTouch Fender/myTouch Slide, Garminfone, G1, CLIQ, and HD2 should be good to go, along with the rest of the lot pictured above.
With new coverage comes new toys, albeit not the most exciting ones. If you’re in one of the new-found HSPA+ areas listed above, T-Mobile is now offering their HSPA+-friendly USB dongle, the webConnect Rocket, in your local meatspace T-Mo spots.
With all that said, I’m excited to know: if you’re in an HSPA+ area, are you seeing much of a speed increase? Let us know in the comments below.