T-Mobile CEO John Legere has taken to the company’s blog to clarify 5G and how the technology can be delivered to just about everybody if its Sprint Merger is successful, with new railing against its competitors in equal measure. That’s thanks in large part to the combined total of more than 400 MHz of spectrum held by the two companies. Sprint’s spectrum is predominantly in the middle bands while T-Mobiles is in the low-band and mmWave spectrum, the executive explains.
By the year 2024, New T-Mobile expects its outdoor wireless coverage to reach 95.8-percent of all rural consumers with in-home service at or above 25 Mbps downloads and 3 Mbps uploads to more than 84-percent of those users.
To enunciate its plans for 5G, T-Mobile — true to its nature — points out what its competitors simply aren’t doing. Namely, the service provider says it’s competitors aren’t really rolling out 5G that will impact everybody.
To begin with, T-Mobile takes aim at Verizon. Equating Verizon’s network rollouts as “5G hot spots” that are far too dependent on mmWave spectrum, T-Mobile points to the company’s somewhat lackluster efforts so far. Verizon’s initial 5G rollout and its relatively short-range coverage, impacting only small areas of cities where it is available, have already been called out before.
While T-Mobile’s low-band spectrum can be used from a site to cover hundreds of square miles, mmWave only covers approximately a single square mile, the carrier asserts. It also doesn’t penetrate walls or windows very well at all and T-Mobile estimates it would cost approximately $1.5 trillion in investments to get enough towers and cell sites in place at the rate Verizon is going.
In a more scathing shift of focus, T-Mobile goes on to direct attention at AT&T’s now infamous 5G E rollout. Speeds of the advanced LTE platform are undoubtedly quicker than standard 4G but T-Mobile isn’t letting that stand. Backed by a new and arguably confusing 5G E icon in customer’s notification bar, the platform has now earned the distinction of being called out as the “dumber” in T-Mobile’s long-running “dumb and dumber” campaign against the two competitors.
Cable companies that are joining the mobile network battle aren’t escaping the wrath with T-Mobile pointing to various cable organizations use of the term “10G” to define the next-generation of networking.
Creating a choice where there isn’t one
4G LTE isn’t forgotten in the discussion either. The T-Mobile executive says that its network will provide a viable alternative to bolster competition in areas of the country where there aren’t options for high-speed broadband access. Mr. Legere notes that nearly half of the US has no competitive options for broadband at above 25Mbps and nearly nine percent don’t have any access to high-speed internet.
The company has already rolled out 2 million square miles of rural LTE, Mr. Legere says, and services most of the country. That’s without the clearance the use of all of its nearly $8 billion-worth of 600 MHz spectrum, which analysts had previously estimated would be used in precisely the way it is. Namely, it’s being used to increase coverage and network capacity across the board.
Using the combined spectrum holdings of Sprint and T-Mobile, New T-Mobile plans to give those users and others a new option — with as many as 66-percent of rural households planned to have access 100 Mbps speeds or better by 2021. Over the following three years, the company claims it would be able to offer those speeds to as many as 90-percent of households in the region.
Taking matters further still, the executive says that the service will also save residents in the US $13 billion per year on home broadband.
That’s an area of wireless where 5G is also currently expected to have a massive impact due to its ability to support more devices and an exponentially larger number of devices all at once. Latency expected from and seen with current implementations of next-gen networking also challenge the typical broadband installation, making that use of the technology all the more feasible.