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T-Mobile HSPA+ 42: Live Speed Test [VIDEO]

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When it comes to discussing 4G there is a LOT of mud slinging back and forth about what is and what isn’t, so after announcing they were going to greatly increase the effective speed of their HSPA+ network, T-Mobile showed us some personal results of testing they’ve done between HSPA+, Verizon-based LTE, and Clearwire:

But they didn’t just want you to take their word for it… so they did a live speed test demo for all to see:

The actual test only achieved levels of about 28, with the 42 being a theoretical number, but still pretty darn good. When asked how you go from 21 to 42, it was explained that most of the work was done on the software and scaling side. They also reiterated that 3G HSPA and 4G HSPA+ were backwards compatible.

The pertinent parts of their press release:

The company vowed to aggressively expand and evolve its 4G smartphone portfolio, launching additional devices capable of delivering peak download speeds of up to 21 Mbps in the first half of 2011, and smartphones capable of delivering peak download speeds of up to 42 Mbps in the second half of the year.

The cutting-edge download speed was demonstrated today by company representatives using a T-Mobile laptop stick developed by ZTE, capable of delivering peak download speeds of up to 42 Mbps and slated to launch in the first half of 2011. By doubling the speed of its 4G network, T-Mobile will offer its customers an unprecedented wireless experience, fueled by improved performance in the use of rich media applications, including creating and sharing mobile content, streaming video, and participating in multi-player gaming and videoconferencing.

So what’s your opinion on the 4G Speed War in the USA?

Rob Jackson
I'm an Android and Tech lover, but first and foremost I consider myself a creative thinker and entrepreneurial spirit with a passion for ideas of all sizes. I'm a sports lover who cheers for the Orange (College), Ravens (NFL), (Orioles), and Yankees (long story). I live in Baltimore and wear it on my sleeve, with an Under Armour logo. I also love traveling... where do you want to go?

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38 Comments

  1. Go T-Mo!

  2. “4g” lol

  3. t mobile killin emmm ..does this mean my mt4g will be even faster ? orr is it capped at some point??? i mean its already fast enough ..sprint is way behind in lv

  4. waiting for real world test results, obstacles and what not…still not bad if they can pull it off.

  5. mt4g is capable of 14.4 mbps.

  6. And they say this isnt 4G….Ok now get better phones and you’ll be top over Verizon!

  7. They must not be testing this in a 4g area, I’m getting way better mbps on Sprint than what they show here.

  8. This is real world!there are people already on the network

  9. most i got on my Evo 4G was 13.2 downlink…uplink w/ sprint as we all know is capped at 1mps.

  10. @paul you can’t be because sprints doesn’t even get close to that. WTF are you smoking?

  11. Great, can I get more than 384kbps up on my TWC cable modem?

  12. lol wat does tmobile have…40 million subscribers..ya of course they are gonna be able to reach speeds like this cuz theres no one using the network…try being verizon or att who have double ur subscribers with more data hungry phones especially the iphone on att…good job tmobile, you were able to increase speeds on a network nobody uses lol

  13. @anton
    hahaha, nice

    @Kevin
    384kbps on time warner…cable??? Dude, switch, that’s horrible. Way back when i had verizon DSL, i was running 786kbps…and that was at least 8 years ago.

  14. Hideja WiMax, Hideja LTE, and Hideja AT&T phones too cuz errbudy gittin raped out here

  15. @Andrew – what are you smoking?!? Their video shows only 2Mbps down on WiMax in Las Vegas. In DC and Baltimore I regularly see 6-7Mbps, which is closer to their real world tests of HSPA+ and LTE.

  16. Yeah when you use a usb 4g stick it will give you great speeds. Seriously what about real time phone 4g speeds? That is what we all care about.

  17. @Anton How is 40 million people “no one”? And you’re forgetting T-Mobile is even bigger worldwide. Also even if T-Mobile had 80 million customers and real world download speeds were cut in half that would still be amazingly fast.

  18. I’m seeing pretty consistent 5.5 Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up on my Nexus S via T-Mobile 3G. So whatever they’re doing to their network is fine by me. Read somewhere that they’ve been adding tons of fiber backhaul.

  19. I get 16mbps In Mississippi on Tmo…..

  20. @Sean You are on crack! You freaking retard! Sprint’s “4G” is WAY behind and slow as fuck!

    on Verizons LTE I am getting 25 Mbps! And they just released it!!! Sprint is behind and will never surpass with that crappy technology “WiMax”

  21. Ya right Don

  22. lol @ newbs in this thread – no carrier is trying to win outright just beat everyone else.

    ATT with last years profit from just Iphone data plans alone could build the largest fastest and most complete network. They would rather keep that money and dole out just enough to compete.

    btw for those that think they know what can do what these are the facts – wimax can right now and will in the future dominate in the foreseeable future over LTE – wether sprint will offer devices or open up there network to tkae full advantage of that is a slow boat of competition.

    LTE UMTS/4GSM General 4G OFDMA/MIMO/SC-FDMA 100 (in 40MHz bandwidth without MIMO) 50 (in 40 MHz bandwidth without MIMO) LTE-Advanced update expected to offer peak rates of at least 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds and 100 Mbit/s to mobile users.

    WiMAX 802.16 Mobile Internet MIMO-SOFDMA 128 (in 20MHz bandwidth) 56 (in 20MHz bandwidth) WiMAX update IEEE 802.16m expected to offer peak rates of at least 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds and 100Mbit/s to mobile users.

  23. @Anton unless you have a LTE chip in your phone you are not actually using the same data on all Verizon phones but on T-mo people using any 3G phone are also using the same data as people using HSPA+. So that means that it will take years for Verizon to have the same amount of people slowing down their network as T-mobile, 40 million people using 3G phones and they still get those fast speeds. Of course that makes Sprint look even worse with only a few million using their 4G phones.

    @Bobert No one gets fast speeds on T-mobile: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=249176&id=108726828894

  24. If WIMAX is going to dominate why is only sprint using it? I got to give Tmo credit they are really stepping it up.

  25. Yay T mobile! I am not planning to switch any time soon, they are keeping up with the times and are cheaper than the other carriers…

  26. @10. Andrew

    Hey Andrew, kill yourself. I get up to 14mbps with Sprint’s Wimax here in Daytona Beach, FL.

  27. the only question I have, will there be any differences between the so called 4G technologies other then the speed. Will LTE handle data better then HSPA+ or vice versus. Will one provide a better quality of service over the other?

  28. Good lord the trolls are having a field day here!

    This will benefit all T-Mobile users in areas where it is implemented. 4G users benefit directly. 3G users will get closer to their theoretical max (if they don’t already). Everyone else benefits from the increased throughput of T-Mobile’s network.

    This isn’t about comparing T-Mobile to other networks (that’s up to the marketing people), it’s about T-Mobile improving their own network. This is why they have consistently great customer service ratings.

  29. @ravidavi in other words you don’t know the answer?

    If you leave it up to the hype of any marketing team to tell you the truth, boy have I got a bridge to sell you…LoL

  30. why do people keep writing “4g” as if its not really 4g? the standards were already lowered and all companies claiming 4g now ACTUALLY do have 4g

  31. Im getting 13megs in MS on TMO also. I got 15megs in Louisianna a few weeks ago.

  32. 4G this 4G that…in all honesty does it matter? All we want as consumers is faster internet and it doesnt matter how it gets to us. It could be caleld 9G and it still wouldnt matter. We want to be able to surf the web faster and DL games and movies and thats it. Cell phones have already pretty much beat any cable company on speeds to our homes. We are able to carry faster data speeds in our pockets. So all this im better than you company war stuff is all BS anyway. Just give us fast internet and be done with it.

  33. Sprint’s 4G is the best, check out a picture from their Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=169900809690348&set=o.8389383510

  34. LTE, HSPA+, WIMAX… Really who cares the fact is we are going to have some insane data speeds on mobile devices if not now, then in the very near future.

  35. Just read this great comment from someone on Engadget:
    “1G = Tin cans and string
    2G = Telegraph
    3G = Analog copper wire phone system
    4G = Digital fiber phone system
    5G = Analog cellular (AMPS)
    6G = Digital cellular (TDMA-GSM-CDMA)
    7G = Circuit Switched Data
    8G = GPRS
    9G = EDGE – 1XRT
    10G = UMTS-HSPA-EVDO
    11G = HSPA+ – WiMAX – LTE

    We’re like 7 Gs ahead of what the marketers are saying, and I probably missed a bunch. What a missed opportunity.

    My point? Who cares about Gs? I want real world performance.”

  36. Technologeis such as the first release of the LTE standard, Wimax and HSPA+ do not meet the IMT Advanced requirements for 4G, also called “IMT Advanced”, as defined by the International Telecommunication Union, Sincs they don’t offer Things like peak data rates up to 1 Gbit/s!

  37. All you guys claiming 15+Mbps on T-Mo need to get a clue. The MyTouch 4G will only support up to 14.4 Mbps ( http://mytouch.t-mobile.com/mytouch-4g-phone-specifications ). Same with the G2.

    That is still really good speed, but there is no way you beat it; that is the “theoretical max” for that device. If you got faster, maybe you were on WiFi and didn’t realize it.

    BTW, I am on T-Mo and loving it. Don’t care about “true” 4G or not, as long as the speeds are there. And the speeds are there.

  38. Not long ago they changed their requirements from a theoretical speed of 1 Gbps to anything significantly faster than 3g. That is why it is possible for companies to label their speeds as 4g.

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