T-Mobile 4G LTE Now Live in 116 Metro Markets

Today at its event in New York City T-Mobile announced that it’s 4G LTE is now available in 116 metro markets.

Just a few months after launching its first 4G LTE networks in the U.S. T-Mobile now has 4G LTE in more than 100 metro markets in the U.S. Those markets include 73 of the top 100 metro markets in the U.S. including New York City, Miami, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles among others.

With the announcement T-Mobile “smashed” its goal of 100 million 4G LTE sites by the middle of this year. As of July 1 of this year T-Mobile has 157 million 4G LTE cell sites across the country. By the end of 2013 T-Mobile plans to have 200 million cell sites across the country.

While T-Mobile was the last of the four major carriers to start its 4G LTE network, the company claims it already has 4G LTE in more of the top 100 markets than Sprint which started before it. Sprint covers only 22 of the top 100 metro markets according to T-Mobile, which is less than half of T-Mobile’s 73. The company still needs to catch up to AT&T, however, which covers more than 90 of the top 100.

Verizon, which recently completed its 4G LTE rollout, covers all of the top 100 markets in the U.S.

T-Mobile claims its 4G LTE network can reach speeds of up to 10 to 20 Mbps, which is in line with speeds of AT&T and Verizon if true. The company will use its already large 4G HSPA+ to help keep fast speeds in areas that don’t have 4G LTE connectivity.

The recent MetroPCS merger will also help T-Mobile boost its 4G LTE network as the networks start to merge. The network will help increase speed and reliability of the T-Mobile network over time.