Can T-Mobile's dual-carrier HSPA+ match Verizon's LTE?

T-Mobile has launched its dual-carrier high-speed packet access plus (HSPA+) effectively doubling data speeds over its ‘4G’ network. The capacity boost is owed more to a doubling up on bandwidth, not in the core throughput of HSPA+ technology. Essentially T-Mobile has taken two 5 MHz HSPA+ downlink carriers -- each of which can support theoretical speeds of 21 Mb/s -- and bonded them together. The distinction is important though as the fat channel gives T-Mobile a bandwidth pipe exactly the size of Verizon Wireless’ long-term evolution network (LTE). For the first time, we'll see an apples-to-apples comparison between LTE and a wideband-CDMA technology, something that was never possible between HSPA and CDMA EV-DO due to their vastly different carrier sizes.