T-Mobile USA Eyes New Data Prices, Urges Releasing Additional Spectrum
T-Mobile USA is looking to provide “a whole range of different pricing options” for its data services, Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray said in an interview at the carrier’s technology showcase in Washington last week. The company is “aggressively” looking at postpaid and prepaid plans to make data service affordable, he said. Many U.S. consumers don’t want to pay $30 or $40 for data plans, he said. Several major carriers have cut minimum data charges and analysts have expected T-Mobile USA to follow suit.
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HSPA+ is a strong technology that will be around quite a while, Ray said. Beyond HSPA+, the carrier is evaluating its options, he said. Ray said T-Mobile will look to LTE when the time is right. “We believe early LTE devices will be very expensive,” he said. The LTE ecosystem will mature after 2013, Ray said. Much equipment that the company is installing is multimode, so shifting to LTE will be straightforward, he said. The carrier bills its HSPA+ as offering 4G speeds and is expanding its service territory across the country.
T-Mobile is hungry for spectrum, Ray said. He emphasized that the federal government must move forcefully to make a large amount of additional spectrum available for broadband mobile devices. Data transmission is growing at an exceptional rate and the U.S. is not well positioned to handle the growth, he said.
It makes sense for public safety to choose LTE in the 700 MHz band, Ray said. Auctioning the D-block will be a great way to drive commercialization of the 700 MHz LTE and will benefit both the industry and public safety, he said.