T-Mobile 4G LTE launching this month

T-Mobile will be kicking off its 4G LTE network later this month and the early results are very promising, but it's too soon to tell if the carrier can catch up to AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. 

The folks over at Laptop Magazine were able to test out the 4G LTE network on a modified Galaxy Note 2 and the results were eye-popping: download speeds of over 58Mbps and upload speeds of more than 25Mbps. Don't expect those types of speeds all the time because these networks obviously don't have many people on them and are thus at the fastest they'll likely ever be. 

The T-Mobile 4G LTE network will reach 100 million customers by the middle of the year and T-Mobile said it will blanket 200 million by the end of the year. The first two devices that will support the T-Mobile 4G LTE network will be the aforementioned Galaxy Note 2 and the upcoming BlackBerry Z10.

T-Mobile is able to roll out its 4G LTE network partially due to the fact that AT&T wasn't allowed to buy it and was forced to give it about $1 billion worth of spectrum. Combine that with the spectrum and assets it will receive in the merger with MetroPCS and T-Mobile will have the ability to offer high-speed 4G LTE networks in nearly every major metropolitan city in the United States. 

The move comes as T-Mobile is trying to catch up to its competitors when it comes to high-speed networks. Sprint has steadily continued to roll out its 4G LTE network and its network is closing in on over 100 markets covered. AT&T has also been plugging away and its network is fast and ahead of where Sprint is. 

All the carriers are still trying to catch up to Verizon, which pushed ahead with 4G LTE early and now is covering about 500 markets. Verizon is already seeing at least 35 percent of its mobile data traffic over 4G LTE and that trend is only expected to continue. 

T-Mobile may be able to one-up the competition by focusing on unlimited and prepaid 4G LTE. The company recently launched a prepaid plan for $70 a month, which offers unlimited calls, texts and data but that's currently HSPA+ data. If T-Mobile offers 4G LTE in an unlimited fashion with no long-term contracts, that may be a compelling feature for consumers. 

[Via Laptop Magazine]