Its rivals all have 4G plans, but T-Mobile USA says it’ll stay the 3G course for the next two years.
That may not be T-Mobile’s best strategy decision. Indeed, the much-larger Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel Corp. all are tackling their 4G futures, whether through the LTE or WiMAX protocols. How T-Mobile expects to remain competitive without investing in far faster technologies than 3G seems problematic. But Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile, says 4G in the United States isn’t necessary for the company right now.
“With HSPA+ we’re in a very good position," Obermann said, according to TeleGeography. “We still have plenty of capacity, so we are competitive."
T-Mobile intends to double its 3G speeds to 42mbps throughout next year. LTE speeds go up to 105mbps.
Part of the reason T-Mobile won’t follow in its competitors’ footsteps has to do with wireless spectrum. The carrier doesn’t own many airwaves and getting its hands on more won’t be easy. For one thing, when spectrum actually becomes available, it costs million of dollars. T-Mobile’s financial performance alone isn’t solid enough for Deutsche Telekom to justify that kind of outlay. In fact, there’s been talk of Deutsche Telekom offloading T-Mobile altogether, although Deutsche Telekom insists it’s keeping its American division.
