As spectrum deal closes, T-Mobile customers can look forward to faster 4G service

T-Mobile has closed on its deal to purchase a large block of 700MHz A-Block spectrum. This low band spectrum is more desirable than higher band spectrum because of its ability to travel longer distances and offer stronger indoor signals. Verizon sold the A-Block spectrum to T-Mobile for $2.365 billion. T-Mobile plans on deploying the spectrum right next to its 1900MHz holdings. CTO Neville Ray said that T-Mobile customers should start to see improvement in their service by the end of the year.

T-Mobile customers in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Washington D.C., and Detroit will be the first to notice the changes. T-Mobile has already been crowned the fastest 4G LTE carrier in the country. Part of the reason is the use of 10MHz + 10MHz 4G LTE service found in 43 metropolitan areas, which provides download speeds as fast as 72Mbps.

The carrier is also testing out wideband service with 15MHz + 15MHz and 20MHz + 20MHz configurations, which provides even faster speeds. In Dallas, where the latter configuration has been tested, download speeds as fast as 147Mbps were achieved. The carrier used spectrum it received from its purchase of MetroPCS to develop the wideband service.

source: SlashGear