T-Mobile's LTE pipeline all set to roll in Vegas, and in Kansas City; carrier raises projections

Back in the middle of January, it appeared as though T-Mobile would be flicking the switch on its first LTE market in Las Vegas. At CES, the carrier's CTO Neville Ray had even said that the LTE service in Vegas was just two to three weeks away. But nothing was ever announced. Now, the nation's fourth largest carrier's press release relating to its latest earnings report slipped in a statement that T-Mobile's "LTE networks have been completed in Las Vegas, NV and Kansas City, MO and are ready for customers as LTE devices launch in 2013."

Things are going so well for T-Mobile that the carrier is accelerating its rollout. It now expects 100 million people to be covered by its 4G LTE service midway through the year with 200 million people covered by the end of the year. As we already pointed out, T-Mobile is rolling out its 4G service in the same order as when it refarmed its 1900MHz spectrum to HSPA+. That means that the order of T-Mobile's LTE launch should go: Las Vegas, Kansas City, Baltimore, Houston and Washington D.C. 142 million customers are now covered by 4G over that band with Orlando, Florida and Richmond, Virginia now part of that 1900MHz 4G coverage. Overall, 225 million T-Mobile subscribers are covered by the carrier's HSPA+ pipeline. Ah, yes, was it really nearly 27 months ago that the ITU said that HSPA+ was 4G?

The latest T-Mobile roadmap shows LTE phones allegedly being released by the carrier on March 27th including the Samsung Galaxy S III, which the rumor says will be re-launched as an LTE device for the carrier on that date. March 27th was also supposed to be the launch date for the LTE enabled BlackBerry Z10, although the Canadian manufacturer is now saying that its all-touch model is just a few weeks away from hitting the states. The Samsung GALAXY Note II is also just a software update away from supporting LTE for T-Mobile customers.

source: T-Mobile via AndroidAuthority