T-Mobile iPhone 5: Yes To Unlimited, No To LTE

T-Mobile is laboring to get its LTE network going and so has lessened plans to upgrade its HSPA+ despite recently announcing an unlimited data plan. Sprint hopes to extend its LTE cover before 2013 and is touting its unlimited data plan as a stopgap until then. If T-Mobile gets LTE up and running in some areas, it would still come fourth, but will it manage it to do so before the iPhone 5 is announced?

T-Mobile iPhone 5: Will it be lucky enough to have an unlimited LTE data plan?

T-Mobile said it would get its 3G 1,900MHz up and running before 2012 was out, and then customers could use more handsets with 3G speeds, like the iPhone 4S. T-Mobile iPhone users have to get by with EDGE speeds right now, but could have 1,900MHz by the year’s end. This means that the iPhone 5 can be on the unlimited data plans with 3G as well, even if T-Mobile doesn’t offer it on contract.

Trials are underway, and T-Mobile could pull in the crowds by offering the iPhone 5 with unlimited and fast data. In fact, its unlimited data plans are cheaper than those of Sprint, the only other major US carrier offering such a plan.

So back to LTE, is it going to make it in time? The fact that T-Mobile is attempting to bring 3G speeds and an unlimited data plan in time for the iPhone 5 pretty much answers that question. T-Mobile is not ready offer LTE speeds until next year so you may be seeing widespread coverage only around the time of the iPhone 6.

Will you go for a T-Mobile iPhone 5 if it wasn’t able to offer blazing LTE speeds like the other carriers? Or will 3G speeds suffice given that T-Mobile now has the cheapest unlimited data plan in the US?