You’d never know T-Mobile was in the process of possibly being acquired by AT&T from hearing CMO Cole Brodman speak. Today at the GigaOM Mobilize conference, Brodman talked about T-Mobile’s growing handset portfolio and the strength of its 4G HSPA+ network. In fact, Brodman used the conference as a platform to launch officially two new 4G phones – the Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC Amaze – along with the Sonic 4G mobile hotspot. T-Mobile wants to be known for 4G, whether there’s an AT&T acquisition on the horizon or not.
Brodman also had some interesting stats to cite on subscriber behavior and network traffic trends. A full 75 percent of T-Mobile phones sold today are smartphones, compared to about 60 percent of US phones as a whole. 4G data already takes up about half the traffic on the network, and about half of 4G traffic is video. Mobile data traffic is doubling every six months.
So what does all this mean for the potential acquisition? Not a whole lot, except it highlights the network footprint that AT&T would really like to have as it battles against Verizon 4G. More speed and more bars in more places.
But have we agreed what 4G actually is? Seems to me many took issue with T-Mobile’s initial “4G” claims… but perhaps their technology and performance has now caught up with their branding.
I don’t like that both AT&T and T-Mobile need to use the 4G label for their HSPA+ networks. It will be really confusing when AT&T continues rollout their LTE implementation.
“Hi, I would like a 4G phone”
“Ah, yes, 4G. Would you like a 4G HSPA+ phone, or a 4G LTE phone”
“What?”
@Adam
AT&T’s 4g phones are both HSDPA+ and LTE. So if you are not in a LTE area the phone will fall back to the HSDPA+ network to deliver the 4G speeds. I doubt that the H+ will be as fast as LTE but the network speeds are approaching the limit of what these phones can handle. I have HSDPA in my area and I am already seeing network speeds of 4 Megabits and 1 megabit uploads. And thats without the enhanced backhaul. So its can only go up from here. The HSDPA+ will be AT&T’s upper hand over other wireless carriers. Verizon mainly wants LTE for the simultaneous voice and data network.
“But have we agreed what 4G actually is?”
Sure. It’s got an extra G, which stands for “Good”. So more G’s equals more good.
It’s just like the bars on your cellphone display…
Yeah, I kind of gave up in calling HSPA+ 4G. Six months ago I would have fought the label. Chalk one up to T-Mobile marketing. At least the network is fast.
As I understand it there was an international standard which defined what speeds qualified as 4G but after pressure they backed off and it means basically what Chucky said. Faster than 3G some of the time.
But yes, for a PHONE the distinction seems rather artificial. As commenters pointed out when Mari posted the speeds she was getting on a Verizon 4G dongle on her computer, you could use up your 5GB cap in about a half hour if you tried.
All the phone vendors in the US are confusing the issue now, and Verizon who COULD be fighting it with some branding stuff over the air hasn’t chosen to bother so far, so its becoming kind of meaningless.
The only thing you can count on with a 4G phone is it will suck your batteries dry quickly.
One thing that has struck me lately with the continued pace of Android phone introduction, even on a small operator like T-Mobile, is how hard it is even for someone like me to keep track of them all. I can’t imagine this is the right way for a vendor like HTC to build brand awareness when nobody can even remember all the phones that were introduced in the last few months? Seems perfect for Verizon/AT&T/Sprint/T-mobile though. We’re back to suggesting you go into the store and ask the nice people what you should get…