T-Mobile USA Still a Year Away from 3G

T-Mobile USA is still lagging behind its competitors in offering 3G wireless service.

Near the end of 2004, the company said it was two years away from having a high-speed cellular-wireless network.

It appears this prediction was accurate, as T-Mobile's senior vice president of Engineering Operations Neville Ray recently told BetaNews that his company won't be able to offer 3G service until the end of 2006 at the earliest.

Currently, it just doesn't have enough bandwidth to add additional survices. However, there will be a wireless spectum auction next summer, and T-Mobile hopes to pick some up.

What Kind?

So far, this carrier hasn't revealed what kind of 3G service it plans to offer.

Still, there has been some speculation that it will choose UMTS, as this the type used by its European sister companies.

If so, this company will be able to offer its customers typical data transfer speeds between 400 and 700 kilobits per second (kbps).

Not Keeping Up with the Joneses

There can be little arguement that T-Mobile USA isn't keeping up with other carriers.

It only began offering EDGE service this fall, for example, well after its competitors were offering similar services.

And several of them are already offering 3G access

Both Verizon Wireless' EV-DO service and Cingular Wireless' HSDPA network offer typical download speeds of 400 to 700 kilobits per second (kbps).

Related Links

• Cingular Launches High-Speed HSDPA Service in U.S.