T-Mobile CTO: Network Should be Ready for iPhone Users by Q4
While much of the attention on T-Mobile’s planned $4 billion network upgrade has centered around its plans to launch LTE next year, there is another key component to the strategy.
T-Mobile is also looking to free up space in another part of its spectrum that should finally allow iPhone users to run on its network at full speed. The company has about a million iPhone subscribers, even though those devices can only run at slow 2G speeds. T-Mobile USA does not sell the iPhone itself.
At a dinner event in New Orleans on Monday, CTO Neville Ray said that the effort to reclaim some of its 1900 MHz spectrum should reach a critical mass in the fourth quarter of this year, allowing the company to more aggressively court AT&T subscribers that are no longer under contract.
Ray declined to comment on whether the company would directly target iPhone users in a big marketing push planned for later this year.
“It would make sense,” Ray agreed, but added, “We’re not there yet.”
The company announced on Monday night two of the companies that will help it build out its next-generation network: Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.
RELATED POSTS:
- With No Apple or Amazon at CTIA, iPad Rivals Free to Sling Arrows
- Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile CEOs Square Off in New Orleans
- Remember Carrier IQ? Well, It’s Still Around and Kicking.
- Sprint Product Exec: Launching LTE Devices Before Network Just Makes Sense
- FCC Chairman: Rejection of AT&T’s T-Mobile Deal Isn’t Causing Higher Prices
- Boingo Adds VPN and Crowdsource Hotspot Data to Its Wi-Fi Software
- T-Mobile CTO: Network Should be Ready for iPhone Users by Q4
- Interview: AT&T’s Glenn Lurie on Being the New Sheriff in Town
- Another Day, Another PayPal-esque Digital Wallet: Here’s MasterCard’s High-Tech Billfold
- CTIA Gets Down to Business in the Big Easy
- AT&T Aims to Break Into the Home-Security Business
- Interview: CTIA Boss Steve Largent Aims To Keep Conference From Being Lost in the Shuffle