T-Mobile pounds the first nail in 2G’s coffin

T-Mobile isn’t just launching a sizable LTE network in 2013, it’s becoming the Grim Reaper for 2G technology as we know it.

T-Mobile unveiled a plan to radically reshape its networks, shutting down the majority of its 2G GSM capacity so it can focus almost entirely on 4G. As a result T-Mobile will get a bigger, badder mobile broadband network and, to boot, will almost certainly land the iPhone. With this new network configuration, T-Mobile is pulling a technological coup. Though it is the spectrum-poorest operator of the Big 4, it will wind up with a higher-capacity LTE network than Sprint and one with comparable capacity to AT&T, while still being able to milk a massive HSPA+ network for years to come. In the process, T-Mobile is calling into question the so-called spectrum crisis. While other operators are desperately searching for new airwaves, T-Mobile found its future growth spectrum sitting right under its nose. Consumer groups and regulators are almost certainly going to ask why AT&T and Verizon Wireless don’t do the same.