Earlier today, T-Mobile announced that its acquisition of Sprint was finally complete after nearly two years. The Un-carrier said that it"s going to move fast, and it"s keeping that promise. According to T-Mobile President of Technology Neville Ray, it"s already starting to roll out Sprint"s 2.5GHz 5G in Philadelphia. It"s already live in some parts of the city.
We"ll move FAST to bring the @TMobile and @Sprint networks together and build #5GforAll. How fast? New T-Mobile is already deploying midband 5G spectrum in Philly. And we"re just getting started. pic.twitter.com/o3LLKA6K9Q
— Neville (@NevilleRay) April 1, 2020
5G is going to be a combination of low-band, mid-band, and mmWave. T-Mobile has already had two pieces of that puzzle, with its nationwide 600MHz low-band network, and deploying mmWave in select cities. With the additional of Sprint"s mid-band frequency, it"s in a unique position to provide a robust 5G solution.
When the carrier announced that the merger was complete earlier today, it said that within six years, T-Mobile will have six times more capacity, and average 5G speeds will be up to eight times faster than LTE. Keep in mind that with the firm"s current 600MHz rollout, it"s only promising a 20% improvement over 4G LTE.
Adding Sprint"s resources into the mix will certainly help to achieve these ambitious goals. Other goals include covering 99% of the population with 5G, and 90% of the population with 5G speeds in excess of 100Mbps, also within six years.