T-Mobile announced its plans to install a nationwide network of 5G infrastructure. In the usual T-Mobile style, its Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray laid down its plans for nationwide deployment of 5G while throwing jabs at its competition, AT&T and Verizon. According to T-Mobile, they will focus on delivering a 5G network that delivers on both the range of its coverage and the data speeds on its network. In order to fulfill those objectives, T-Mobile plans to deploy 5G on low-band, mid-band, and high-band spectrum, which include the recently acquired 600MHz, 28GHz, and 39GHz bands. Deploying 5G on these frequencies bring together the advantages of increased coverage of low-band frequencies and increased bandwidth of high-band frequencies. Once T-Mobile deploys 5G, the wireless carrier sees new applications and solutions that can take advantage of the 5G technology, which includes embedded and environmental sensors, augmented reality, and real-time language translation.
Aside from hinting its plans for 5G, T-Mobile took some swipes at its competitors AT&T and Verizon regarding their respective 5G plans. T-Mobile criticized AT&T and Verizon’s focus on 5G deployment on high-band frequencies and the deployment of fixed 5G as wireless home broadband, with the carrier pointing out that these deployments will not result in a nationwide mobile 5G service. The magenta carrier also poked fun at AT&T’s recent deployment of its “5G Evolution” network, which T-Mobile calls “fake 5G”.
While it will take some time before 5G standards are finalized, T-Mobile is actively involved in the testing of 5G technologies. The carrier has petitioned with the FCC its request to use the 3.5GHz band for 5G testing. It has also embraced the use of small cells in deploying 5G, and the carrier had previously mentioned it will make use of 28GHz for 5G deployment. Aside from 5G deployments, T-Mobile is still involved in expanding its LTE network, which is still behind Verizon in terms of LTE availability. In an effort to expand its LTE service, T-Mobile plans to begin deploying LTE service on the 600MHz band in select areas this year with the nationwide network deployment fully accomplished by the year 2020.