The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

T-Mobile USA splashes the 3G cash

$2.7bn here, $4.2bn there - it starts adding up

Increase your knowledge of the latest threats to your busines

T-Mobile USA, America's smallest cellco, is to splashing $2.7bn on a 3G network build-out. Until last month, the German-owned firm was constrained by a severe shortage of wireless spectrum - meaning crap reception in many areas and more network busy signals than its rivals.

That was solved last month with the conclusion of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auction. T-Mobile USA dropped $4.2bn to ensure that it was the high bidder in 120 markets.

Befitting its European roots, T-Mobile is deploying UMTS technology for the new network. It expects to to start offering 3G services in several markets by mid-2007, to substantially complete coverage by 2008 and finish the gig by 2009.

Of course, T-Mobile's rivals are already well advanced with their own 3G networks, but since Americans are not exactly early adopters of data-paced mobile services, T-Mobile's tardiness shouldn't harm them too much.

Increase your knowledge of the latest threats to your busines

Don’t Miss

Vulture logo with head phonesWhy Google Wave makes Tim Bray nervous

Radio Reg XML co-author on complexity and the web

Microsoft .NET logoMicrosoft kills Visual Studio's Oracle data connection

Swift reaction: 'Sucks', 'shortsighted'

Opera Software reinvents complete irrelevance

Fail and You Unites browser with self-delusion

Microsoft's Bing feeds you, tries to keep you captive

Review Fully featured Google inertia beater?