CTIA 2010: T-Mobile Talks Up 3G in the USA

LAS VEGAS -- International CTIA WIRELESS 2010 -- If Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) CEO René Obermann is phased by falling revenue at the operator's T-Mobile US Inc. subsidiary, he showed no sign of it during his Las Vegas keynote on Wednesday.

"T-Mobile USA has a good growth opportunity," he told the crowd, centering on the operator's efforts to considerably expand its faster 3G network footprint by the end of year. "We intend to cover about 185 million POPs with HSPA+ by the end of the year." (See T-Mobile Ups 3G Stakes and T-Mobile Steps Up HSPA+ in Philly.)

"3G is far from over," he said, perhaps responding to the Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) and Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR) "4G" love-in that happened before he took to the podium on Wednesday morning. (See CTIA 2010: Hesse – LTE Will Be Bigger But We Are First.)

HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet Access Plus) technology should increase network download speeds to a maximum of 21 Mbit/s, which translates to average throughput of 5 Mbit/s, according to Obermann. So far, T-Mobile is the only US carrier to adopt the faster 3G upgrade.

"This T-Mobile network may, for a number of years, become the most competitive network in the US," he contended. "In the long run we will migrate, of course, to LTE." — Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile