T-Mobile Czech Republic is increasing its LTE-Advanced coverage, adding 58 more cities with a total population of 350,000. In the locations covered by LTE-A (which is based on carrier aggregation), data download speed has doubled to 150 Mbps. By the end of the year, the number of LTE-A transmitters is expected to reach nearly 1,000. T-Mobile currently offers two phone models supporting the particular frequency band aggregation that is being used in the current LTE-A deployment: the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and it plans to offer more models in future.

Tarifica’s Take

T-Mobile had first-mover advantage in the Czech Republic’s LTE-A space and is proceeding apace in increasing the high-speed technology’s footprint in the country. While building the network is of course key, making sure that supporting devices are widely available and affordable is equally important, if the technology is to thrive. A previous deployment of LTE-A in Prague and other areas—which uses a different frequency aggregation than the current 58-city deployment—already has 16 compatible devices. The operator clearly understands the importance of device support, and we expect that the current number of two compatible devices for the most recent expansion of LTE-A will increase significantly before long.