T-Mobile has a hard time keeping their roadmaps safe from prying eyes, what with the Vibrant 4G being revealed all too early and causing a stir of commotion as to why Samsung is taking their sweet time upgrading their Galaxy S series of devices to Android 2.2, but let’s ignore that for a moment and talk about USB modems. No, they’re not sexy, but they do give you much needed internet access when you’re in a sticky situation and can’t locate a WiFi hotspot. Thanks to TmoNews we got a sneak peak at four upcoming devices. Note that the following product names are internal only and will most definitely be changed before final retail launch. First up is the “Kitty Hawk”, which replaces today’s T-Mobile Jet. It’s going to launch next month and support 21 Mbps HSPA+. Next is “Washington”, which is also coming out in March and it’s going to replace today’s T-Mobile Rocket. It’ll support 42 Mbps HSPA+ as well as international bands should you be traveling abroad.
The last two devices are portable hotspots, meaning they take the signal coming from T-Mobile’s cellular network and then transform it into WiFi so you can use things like your iPad, Kindle, Nintendo DS, or any other device with WiFi enabled device to connect to the internet. The first is “Lil Wayne”, and when it’s released in March it will support 21 Mbps HSPA+. Then there’s “Wayne”, the bigger brother, that does 42 Mbps HSPA+ when it launches during the second quarter.
We don’t have prices for the above mentioned devices, but they’ll most likely be in line with what T-Mobile charges for data sticks today. We’re eager to see just how fast T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network is compared to Verizon’s LTE and Sprint’s WiMAX networks. As for AT&T … they really need to get on the ball and announce why their network is special, especially after losing exclusivity of the iPhone.