In 2006, this company paid billions of dollars to acquire the rights to the wireless spectrum it needs to roll out a 3G network. However, the government agencies that are currently using that spectrum ran into delays freeing it up.
The long delay has been hard on this telecom, as it's the only major wireless carrier in the United States without a 3G network. And one of its competitors, Sprint, is going to start offering a 4G network to customers in the near future.
Still, in a press conference on Monday, CEO Hamid Akhavan said that these problems have been resolved, and promised his company will have 3G service up by this summer.
And a T-Mobile USA spokesperson told Crave that the network will be going during the first half of this year.
A slightly different version
The telecom is already offering models that have been specially modified to be able to take advantage of its 3G network.
This carrier can't just release a 3G phone that's already on the market. In order to get the radio spectrum it needed to create a national 3G network, T-Mobile had to use a different frequency from the other U.S. carriers that offer UMTS and HSDPA service. This means that standard U.S. 3G phones won't be able to access T-Mobile's
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Kate Gerwig, Editorial Director
3G network.