T-Mobile has the world’s first standalone 5G network and celebrated with a dazzling drone display at Lisbon, ND. America’s Uncarrier added another 2,000 cities and towns when the standalone 5G network was activated.
The reason why T-Mobile has been able to very quickly expand its network is because of the acquisition of Sprint – which not only gave the new, enlarged company many more subscribers but also combined spectrum and base station assets. T-Mobile has been repurposing existing and overlapping coverage in LTE networks and using this to expand into 5G technology. The results seem impressive – T-Mobile’s 5G service now covers over 1.3 million square miles, including more than 7,500 towns and cities. The Uncarrier reports that in areas of its new standalone (or SA) 5G network, “…engineers have already seen up to a 40% improvement in latency during testing, and that is just the beginning of what can be done…”
Standalone 5G technology is going to allow T-Mobile to use its full 600MHz spectrum for its 5G network. The press release explains that non-standalone networks combine 600MHz 5G signal with mid-band LTE, but a device needs a connection to both LTE and 5G networks to access the core network. This means the range of the lower frequency 600MHz 5G radio signal is capped at the range of LTE operating at mid-range frequencies. This is important because the lower the frequency, the further the signal can travel, and the better it can penetrate into buildings. By enabling a nationwide standalone 5G network, T-Mobile increased its 5G coverage by a very healthy 30%. T-Mobile’s 5G network advantage compared with Verizon is shown in the image below and the difference is stark!
Finally, T-Mobile acknowledges that the input of several industry partners including network partners Cisco, Ericsson and Nokia, and device or component manufacturers OnePlus, Qualcomm, and Samsung for providing updated software to ensure devices are compatible with the new standalone 5G network. You can check out the drone display in the short embedded YouTube clip below:
Source: T-Mobile
