T-Mobile Boosts LTE Speeds in NYC, Teases Un-Carrier 8.0

T-Mobile is speeding up its LTE service in New York City, in a big way.

The company on Monday announced that its new Wideband LTE, which boosts network speeds up to 50 percent, is now live throughout the greater NYC metro area. Some in the area have already reported download speeds in excess of 100Mbps, T-Mobile said, though the average speed in the region is closer to 22.2 Mbps.

Wideband LTE increases bandwidth and capacity on T-Mobile's network to serve faster peak network speeds. This means that there's more lanes for T-Mobile LTE customers to use, much like Verizon's "XLTE" and Sprint's "Spark." With Wideband LTE, customers can download a 90-minute HD movie on their phone or tablet in just 3.5 minutes, or an album in just nine seconds, with peak download speeds, T-Mobile said.

In the NYC area, the network covers customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, and Northern NJ. At this point, T-Mobile wideband LTE is available in 27 markets.

"New Yorkers deserve a network that moves at the blazing speed of this amazing city," T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray said in a statement. "Our LTE network was already fastest here. Now, with the launch of Wideband LTE, we've widened our lead even further throughout the greater metro area. We are working relentlessly to bring more Wideband LTE to more markets in 2015 for our customers to enjoy."

Meanwhile, expect more news from T-Mobile tomorrow. The company is planning to unveil one of its "biggest and boldest moves yet" at an event Tuesday dubbed "Un-carrier 8.0." At previous un-carrier events, T-Mobile announced its Music Freedom program and an initiative to improve Wi-Fi calling.

"This one is so big we had to keep it a surprise," T-Mobile teased Monday. The event will be live-streamed on T-Mobile's website starting at 10:30 ET Tuesday; stay tuned for all the news.

In October, T-Mobile turned on "wideband LTE" in San Francisco following a launch the previous week in Connecticut.

One of the devices on which you can test out LTE, meanwhile, is the Nexus 9 ($589.00 at Amazon) tablet, which arrived at T-Mobile last week. See more in the slideshow above and the video below.