T-Mobile USA upgrades to HSDPA 7.2Mbps, AT&T strikes back

It's been quite a good week for the T-Mobile subscribers. After becoming the first carrier to get the Google Nexus One Android powerhouse, the company has now upgraded its 3G network to accommodate the increasing demands of modern mobile phones and modems.

Starting today, the entire 3G network of T-Mobile in the United States should be able to provide downlink speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps (currently 3.6 Mbps). We say "should", because user reports suggest that some areas are still stuck with vanilla 3G and its modest (as of year 2010) data throughput.

The answer of the competition also didn't took too long either. Right after the T-Mobiel announcement, AT&T went ahead and announced that they're ready with the HSPA 7.2 Mbps software upgrade of their base stations. They still need to overhaul their cells physically though. The first test markets for the super-duper high-speed data will be the cities of Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami. Nationwide coverage should be completed in 2011.

Now, which will be the first one to jump on the LTE bandwagon?

T-Mobile USA source | AT&T source