T-Mobile said it invested almost $3 billion in mid-band 5G spectrum at the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Auction 110. The carrier obtained an average of 21 MHz of mid-band spectrum in strategic regions. This would theoretically help cover up to 184 million customers across the U.S. This move significantly bolsters T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G, which provides consistent 5G speeds across a broader area.
The carrier’s push to enable the mid-band spectrum across larger areas was driven by the Sprint acquisition. T-Mobile also took soft jibes at its competitors, claiming they have spent over $80 billion in “trying to catch up”.
“We’re already delivering customers the largest, fastest, and most reliable 5G network, and we’re always working to make the best 5G network even better,” President of Technology at T-Mobile, Neville Ray, said in a press release (via GSM Arena).
“While Verizon and AT&T remain locked in a 5G race for second place, we’ll use this additional spectrum to take our 5G network to the next level and deliver even greater 5G performance to our customers across the nation.”
T-Mobile wants to bring Ultra Capacity 5G to over 300 million customers by 2023
Moreover, the carrier announced that of the 310 million 5G users, 210 million are on the mid-band Ultra Capacity 5G. So it’s clear that a majority of its 5G customers rely heavily on the mid-band spectrum.
T-Mobile said this is twice the amount of customers on Verizon’s Ultra Wideband and “multitudes” more than AT&T 5G+. The latter is only available in select regions at the moment, further bolstering T-Mobile’s advantage. T-Mobile plans to bring Ultra Capacity 5G to at least 260 million customers this year and 300 million by 2023.
In other 5G news, AT&T and Verizon recently had to engage in discussions with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and airlines over the rollout of C-Band 5G. The FAA initially claimed that C-Band 5G could interfere with an aircraft’s altitude instruments. This would be devastating as altitude instruments assist the pilots in landing the aircraft during low visibility.
But the network carriers and the FAA seem to have finally reached an understanding. This brings a big sigh of relief for Verizon and AT&T, as they can now proceed with the safe rollout of C-Band 5G.
2022-02-02 15:08:39