T-Moblie becomes first and only US carrier to roll out HSPA+ 3G, reaches speeds of 21 Mbps

On Friday, T-Mobile became the only carrier to have any sort of HSPA+ network in the United States. The new network allows for data connections of up to 21 Mbps downloading and 5.75 Mbps uploading. Those are theoretical numbers, which represent the peak, so actual numbers are likely to be much lower than those impressive numbers.

The new HSPA+ network, however, is only available in Philadelphia, and it only broadcasts from 20 cell towers. Even if it is only 20 towers, that’s 20 more than broadcast HSPA+ in the US before and should hopefully soon increase to more. However, it’s worth noting that the system is something only T-Mobile is rolling out. AT&T has said it is sticking to its 7.2 Mbps 3G network until 2011 when the 4G technology LTE becomes commercially available. T-Mobile also plans on supporting LTE in 2011, though it currently has a much smaller 3G network than AT&T, so it makes sense that they would be interested in putting out any advantage for now as it continues to roll out 3G.

The rolling out HSPA+ appears to be ahead of schedule for T-Mobile, as it only promised service in 2010. So far there’s no mention of any adapters or cellphones that will support HSPA+, though presumably there will be some soon. It’s possible that this will help boost T-Mobile, if only in the short term. With the exception of the HTC Hero, it remains the main U.S. carrier for Android, and a decent Android phone working with the new, faster network might just entice disenfranchised iPhone users. Of course, it might not mean anything to the average cell phone buyer, but it’s at least a step in the right direction.

Read [Electronista]