T-Mobile just launched its mid-band 5G system in new towns in 18 states, bringing 5G that may actually make a difference to many more people than had it before.
5G in the US runs on three different sets of frequencies. AT&T and T-Mobile heavily use low-band, which is a very 4G-like experience. Verizon primarily uses high-band, which is super fast but has very little coverage. Only T-Mobile has exclusive channels dedicated to mid-band 5G, which has the potential to balance citywide coverage and better-than-4G speeds.
“This is our 5G strategy in action," T-Mobile President of Technology Neville Ray said in a press release. "Mid-band is the 5G spectrum, and T-Mobile has more of it than anyone. We have nearly twice as much low and mid-band spectrum as AT&T and nearly triple that of Verizon. And that means T-Mobile is the only one capable of making the world’s best 5G network a reality.”
(Image: T-Mobile)
At the moment, T-Mobile uses up to 60MHz of spectrum for its mid-band 5G, according to Ray. That's equivalent to three more 4G channels that—according to T-Mobile—can deliver average speeds around 300Mbps. The carrier owns more 5G mid-band spectrum, but can't use it yet for various reasons, which we detail in this story.
The carrier already had mid-band in Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Washington D.C.; it added 81 more "towns and cities" today, although most people wouldn't consider many of them to be separate areas (such as the various villages in New York's Nassau County.) T-Mobile has a full list here.
Mid-band is the most popular form of 5G in the rest of the world, but it's less common here because of mistakes the FCC made when auctioning 5G spectrum. While AT&T and Verizon are working to use very small slices of mid-band for 5G, most of their mid-band is used for their 4G networks. Their next opportunity to get large amounts of mid-band spectrum will be this December, when 280MHz of "C-Band" spectrum will go up for auction.
All of T-Mobile's existing 5G phones support mid-band, which is also known as frequency band n41. That includes low-cost phones such as the Revvl 5G, which don't have support for the more expensive high-band millimeter-wave 5G.
We'll provide a better perspective on T-Mobile's mid-band performance when our Fastest Mobile Networks story comes out next week. We also track 5G updates on our Race to 5G page.
Further Reading
- 3 Reasons T-Mobile Isn't (Yet) Dominating 5G
- How Mobile Carriers Are Responding to Hurricane Laura
- The Best Cheap Phone Plans for 2020
- T-Mobile Hit by Voice, Data Outage
- More in Race to 5G
- More in Wireless Carriers