T-Mobile LTE and faster HSPA+ light up early in some cities

As the last of the major carriers in the US to deploy LTE, customers on T-Mobile are chomping at the bit for faster mobile internet. If you’ve got the right phone and live in the right place, the chances are good you already have what you need to take a look at T-Mobile’s new LTE service.

In the tech world, you can either do it first or you can do it right. Rarely do you get both. T-Mobile’s LTE is a little behind the rest of the US carriers, but they are coming out of the gate swinging withnew no contract plans and a network rollout that makes it seem like there’s going to be quite a bit of Magenta LTE on the map soon.

There’s plenty of room for more competition, especially when it comes to pricing and a dedication to expanding both their HSPA+ and their LTE networks, which is something T-Mobile will be able to hold over their competition. Soon, T-Mobile will be announcing the cities that are lit up with LTE, but more importantly perhaps is the news that their HSPA+ networks has been improved in those same areas.

If you’re a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note 2 owner you’ll have noticed a software update recently. This update contains everything your radios need in order to start doing something with the LTE signals floating around you. If you live in Phoenix, San Jose, Houston, D.C. or Baltimore you’ll see that those networks are already live. Your network icon will switch over to LTE, but until today if you’ve noticed it the change has only ever been brief. The update for the phone has only been out for a little while, ans it’s unlikely that most people would have noticed it.

Since the Galaxy Note 2 and the Lumia 810 are the only phones on T-Mobile that officially support LTE right now, it’s a pretty small group of people that even have the ability to notice. The LG Nexus 4′s LTE radio is disabled by Google, as that radio was never meant to be used and the phone never cleared the FCC with permission to access that network. T-Mobile is expected to announce other LTE capable phones, including the BlackBerry Z10 with their UNcarrier launch later this week.

If you don’t have an LTE phone, you may still notice some improvements. Users in NYC, Washington DC, Florida, and other places in the US have noticed unprecedented HSPA+ speeds, in some cases offering twice the speed as what had previously been possible in the same area on their phone. T-Mobile promised to continue to develop their HSPA+ network as well as their new LTE network, and it seems like they are certainly keeping that promise for now. T-Mobile account across the social networks are having fun popping in and out of accounts where speed tests show a marked improvement, and making sure to let everyone know that there’s more on the way.