The goal of 2021 has been achieved ahead of schedule, with 5G network covering 200 million people
According to foreign media reports, the US operator T-Mobile recently announced that the company has achieved its 2021 goal to enable a faster cellular network to cover 200 million people, six weeks ahead of the previously announced goal for the end of 2021.
T-Mobile's competitors AT&T and Verizon also plan to launch their own, faster mid-frequency 5G networks. These three national operators have spent billions of dollars this year from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to acquire a new wireless spectrum C-band.
AT&T and Verizon originally planned to launch these services in parts of some cities in the United States in 2021, but the Federal Aviation Administration opposed it because the frequency band was related to a specific frequency band related to aircraft altimeters.
Before the FAA objected, Verizon stated that its goal was to cover 100 million people with 5G in its frequency band by March. AT&T's goal is to cover 70 million to 75 million people by the end of 2022, and to expand to more than 100 million people by the beginning of 2023. T-Mobile has also purchased some C-band spectrum, but it will not start deployment until the end of 2023.
Neville Ray, T-Mobile’s president of technology, said that although his company does not have the same pressure on the immediate use of the spectrum as AT&T and Verizon, it is working with industry organization CTIA to address concerns about the use of C-band.
Ray added that he believes that based on physics and advantages, the C-band spectrum should be applicable to cellular networks without interfering with airlines.
T-Mobile said on Monday that 80% of its customers are now covered by its expanded mid-frequency 5G network, which is known as ultra-capacity 5G.
The operator previously stated that the average download speed of its target network is 400Mbps, which will greatly improve the 4G LTE performance of its low-band 5G network. Although the speed is slower, but the latter's low-frequency network coverage is wider, currently covering 308 million people.
As for the next step, T-Mobile said in March that it plans to use mid-band 5G to cover more than 250 million people by the end of 2022.