T-Mobile activates 5G in more cities, delivers Sprint customers wider LTE access following...

Posted:
in General Discussion edited April 2020
T-Mobile is quickly consolidating wireless assets won in a major merger with Sprint, and this week rolled out additions to its 5G network as it works to expand coverage to all 50 states.

T-Mobile
T-Mobile's 5G network continues to expand.


Announced in a blog post on Tuesday, T-Mobile is utilizing 2.5GHz spectrum acquired in its landmark merger with Sprint to deploy 5G capabilities in parts of Philadelphia, offering customers with compatible hardware access to data transfer speeds reaching nearly 600 Mbps.

A similar rollout is planned for parts of New York, which will become the first city to be serviced by low-band, mid-band and mmWave 5G technologies, simultaneously. The "Un-carrier" is also activating 5G network nodes in Detroit, St. Louis and Columbus, Ohio.

T-Mobile's 5G strategy is based on a "layer cake" approach to network connectivity. Broad swaths of land will be served by a base comprised of 600MHz low-band spectrum, effective at carrying signals to remote locales and deep into buildings, while mid-band spectrum will cover large metro regions. The top of the "cake," fast mmWave technology that offers blazing transfer speeds at the cost of transmission distance and object penetration, is to see limited use in densely populated urban areas.

"Connectivity is more important than ever today, and the challenging time we're all facing shows just how critical 5G for All is," said Neville Ray, T-Mobile President of Technology. "While our amazing team safely works to keep people across the country connected to work, school and family, we aren't slowing down on building out the broad and deep network that only this combined company can deliver.

Later this month, Sprint customers with Samsung's Galaxy S 20 5G will be able to access T-Mobile's 5G network that covers more than 5,000 cities and towns across the country. Further, the wireless provider is allowing Sprint subscribers to roam on its LTE network, doubling the number of available cell sites.

Finally, T-Mobile will add the OnePlus 8 5G to its lineup on April 29, brining the number of available 5G-capable handsets up to seven.

T-Mobile flipped the switch on its 5G network in December with an emphasis on low-band spectrum rollout.

Apple is widely expected to launch a 5G smartphone in iPhone 12 later this year.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    Is T-Mobile civerage as good as they show on their map? I have AT&T and my coverage is nothing like that.
  • Reply 2 of 17
    baconstangbaconstang Posts: 1,105member
    Looking at the map, it appears the SF bay area is 4G only.
    Oh well, no biggy.  Not too many techie types there anyway.
    napoleon_phoneapartrazorpit
  • Reply 3 of 17
    FatmanFatman Posts: 513member
    From my experience Verizon has best coverage nationally, but maybe this acquisition will turn a two horse race into a three horse race? Apple 5G handsets should kick start the transition, crossing my fingers that there is no delay of the Fall iPhone 2020 release.
    razorpit
  • Reply 4 of 17
    darkvaderdarkvader Posts: 1,146member
    razorpit said:
    Is T-Mobile civerage as good as they show on their map? I have AT&T and my coverage is nothing like that.

    In my experience, yes.  It's much better than when I had AT&T.
    spock1234razorpitpulseimages
  • Reply 5 of 17
    My t-mobile 
    44Mbps down, 2Mbps up

    My speed pre merger announcement was regularly 75Mbps
  • Reply 6 of 17
    razorpit said:
    Is T-Mobile civerage as good as they show on their map? I have AT&T and my coverage is nothing like that.
    Be careful not to read too much into coverage maps.  They are good for showing where the carrier has a signal.  They are not an accurate indicator of how good the signal will be where you are.  Variables like your location, your hardware, network density, etc. play a part in determining how good of a signal razorpit might get.  Are you urban? You can probably get a good reliable signal from any of them.  Suburban? Rural?  Rule of thumb seems to be the further out you go, the more all roads lead to Verizon.

    Just from a coverage standpoint, it's typically Verizon with the greatest coverage, followed by AT&T, TMob (damn near neck and neck), and the red headed stepchild Sprint.

    https://www.reviews.org/mobile/best-cell-phone-coverage/  ← interesting little article.

    razorpit
  • Reply 7 of 17
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    razorpit said:
    Is T-Mobile civerage as good as they show on their map? I have AT&T and my coverage is nothing like that.
    Be careful not to read too much into coverage maps.  They are good for showing where the carrier has a signal.  They are not an accurate indicator of how good the signal will be where you are.  Variables like your location, your hardware, network density, etc. play a part in determining how good of a signal razorpit might get.  Are you urban? You can probably get a good reliable signal from any of them.  Suburban? Rural?  Rule of thumb seems to be the further out you go, the more all roads lead to Verizon.

    Just from a coverage standpoint, it's typically Verizon with the greatest coverage, followed by AT&T, TMob (damn near neck and neck), and the red headed stepchild Sprint.

    https://www.reviews.org/mobile/best-cell-phone-coverage/  ← interesting little article.

    Thanks for the article I’ll check it out. My first phone was on Arial. At the time they were the only affordable carrier that had coverage in Tampa and Pittsburgh. Two important cities for me at the time. I forget what happened to them but for a little while I was on Sprint because they were the cheapest and just as band as everyone else. Have been with AT&T since the iPhone 3G. At home and work, suburbs of the Burgh, I have to use Wi-Fi calling. Verizon without a doubt is better. I would have make the switch when Apple added Verizon but they still had that no data while on a call thing going on with their radios and I needed both because of my work at the time.

    Friends keep telling me I should switch to T-Mobile. I figured it can’t be any worse than AT&T.
  • Reply 8 of 17
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    razorpit said:
    razorpit said:
    Is T-Mobile civerage as good as they show on their map? I have AT&T and my coverage is nothing like that.
    Be careful not to read too much into coverage maps.  They are good for showing where the carrier has a signal.  They are not an accurate indicator of how good the signal will be where you are.  Variables like your location, your hardware, network density, etc. play a part in determining how good of a signal razorpit might get.  Are you urban? You can probably get a good reliable signal from any of them.  Suburban? Rural?  Rule of thumb seems to be the further out you go, the more all roads lead to Verizon.

    Just from a coverage standpoint, it's typically Verizon with the greatest coverage, followed by AT&T, TMob (damn near neck and neck), and the red headed stepchild Sprint.

    https://www.reviews.org/mobile/best-cell-phone-coverage/  ← interesting little article.

    Thanks for the article I’ll check it out. My first phone was on Arial. At the time they were the only affordable carrier that had coverage in Tampa and Pittsburgh. Two important cities for me at the time. I forget what happened to them but for a little while I was on Sprint because they were the cheapest and just as band as everyone else. Have been with AT&T since the iPhone 3G. At home and work, suburbs of the Burgh, I have to use Wi-Fi calling. Verizon without a doubt is better. I would have make the switch when Apple added Verizon but they still had that no data while on a call thing going on with their radios and I needed both because of my work at the time.

    Friends keep telling me I should switch to T-Mobile. I figured it can’t be any worse than AT&T.

    At this point in the "suburbs of the burgh" it is not unusual for me to have to shut off WiFi via Comcast and rely on T-Mobile's LTE.  But that's only because Comcast is overloaded.  But T-Mobile has been very reliable for me -- until I travel out past the developed suburbs into rural and semi-rural areas where coverage gets sketchy.   But there, T-Mobile looks to be developing out their 5G coverage -- at least east of city.
    razorpit
  • Reply 9 of 17
    vvk1vvk1 Posts: 11member
    razorpit said:
    Is T-Mobile civerage as good as they show on their map? I have AT&T and my coverage is nothing like that.
    Be careful not to read too much into coverage maps.  They are good for showing where the carrier has a signal.  They are not an accurate indicator of how good the signal will be where you are.  Variables like your location, your hardware, network density, etc. play a part in determining how good of a signal razorpit might get.  Are you urban? You can probably get a good reliable signal from any of them.  Suburban? Rural?  Rule of thumb seems to be the further out you go, the more all roads lead to Verizon.

    Just from a coverage standpoint, it's typically Verizon with the greatest coverage, followed by AT&T, TMob (damn near neck and neck), and the red headed stepchild Sprint.

    https://www.reviews.org/mobile/best-cell-phone-coverage/  ← interesting little article.

    The thing about Sprint is that it roams on TMO, Verizon and US Cellular. So when you are in a rural area you are using Verizon CDMA typically. So if you have AT&T or TMO you are in worse shape because you cannot roam on Verizon and your phone probably does not support CDMA anyway. And before Verizon nazies say that CDMA is about to be shut down, I say good luck with that because a lot of rural areas have nothing but Verizon CDMA.
  • Reply 10 of 17
    vvk1 said:
    razorpit said:
    Is T-Mobile civerage as good as they show on their map? I have AT&T and my coverage is nothing like that.
    Be careful not to read too much into coverage maps.  They are good for showing where the carrier has a signal.  They are not an accurate indicator of how good the signal will be where you are.  Variables like your location, your hardware, network density, etc. play a part in determining how good of a signal razorpit might get.  Are you urban? You can probably get a good reliable signal from any of them.  Suburban? Rural?  Rule of thumb seems to be the further out you go, the more all roads lead to Verizon.

    Just from a coverage standpoint, it's typically Verizon with the greatest coverage, followed by AT&T, TMob (damn near neck and neck), and the red headed stepchild Sprint.

    https://www.reviews.org/mobile/best-cell-phone-coverage/  ← interesting little article.

    The thing about Sprint is that it roams on TMO, Verizon and US Cellular. So when you are in a rural area you are using Verizon CDMA typically. So if you have AT&T or TMO you are in worse shape because you cannot roam on Verizon and your phone probably does not support CDMA anyway. And before Verizon nazies say that CDMA is about to be shut down, I say good luck with that because a lot of rural areas have nothing but Verizon CDMA.
    I can only judge Sprint from my personal use.  Because of nepotism (owner's son is our Sprint rep), our company phones are on Sprint's network.  To describe the quality of the network I'll use the most technical terminology I can muster: straight doo doo.  So while it might roam on other networks, it roams like a blind alcoholic squirrel. I live in suburban Atlanta.  When I drive downtown for my 2 days in the office, Sprint's fine.  In Dacula (northern Atlanta suburb), Sprint is the equivalent of can-string-yell.  My kids get better service on an MVNO (Metro - no surprise billing ftw) and I get much better service on my personal phone through AT&T.  My wife's firm contracts with Verizon and she can get service -good service- seemingly anywhere.  Again, only judging by my personal use case, but when I visit remote customers in rural South Georgia, I borrow my wife's phone and forward my number.  When I go hunting, her phone.   Her phone being part of her comp is nice.  Otherwise, she wouldn't be on Verizon.  It ain't cheap.
    pulseimages
  • Reply 11 of 17
    PChinPChin Posts: 3member
    razorpit said:
    Thanks for the article I’ll check it out. My first phone was on Arial. At the time they were the only affordable carrier that had coverage in Tampa and Pittsburgh. Two important cities for me at the time. I forget what happened to them but for a little while I was on Sprint because they were the cheapest and just as band as everyone else. Have been with AT&T since the iPhone 3G. At home and work, suburbs of the Burgh, I have to use Wi-Fi calling. Verizon without a doubt is better. I would have make the switch when Apple added Verizon but they still had that no data while on a call thing going on with their radios and I needed both because of my work at the time.

    Friends keep telling me I should switch to T-Mobile. I figured it can’t be any worse than AT&T.
    I was an At&t customer since 2007 till Nov last year. Was skeptical of T-mobile coverage for a long time, especially on the road, even though T-mobile fee is considerably less. But I made the switch finally, and didn’t see any issues till now and actually happy that I did. Coverage is good for the most part on the road and also in the buildings that I’m in. 
    pulseimages
  • Reply 12 of 17
    davgregdavgreg Posts: 1,037member
     Rule of thumb seems to be the further out you go, the more all roads lead to Verizon.

    Just from a coverage standpoint, it's typically Verizon with the greatest coverage, followed by AT&T, TMob (damn near neck and neck), and the red headed stepchild Sprint.
    In the cities, the speeds tend to be much lower than in less congested areas on Verizon and AT&T.
    My AT&T service has greatly improved over the last couple of years and is as good as Verizon. T-Mobile roams on AT&T out in the boonies, btw.
  • Reply 13 of 17
    bulk001bulk001 Posts: 764member
    darkvader said:
    razorpit said:
    Is T-Mobile civerage as good as they show on their map? I have AT&T and my coverage is nothing like that.

    In my experience, yes.  It's much better than when I had AT&T.
    It seems to all be location dependent. We had terrible coverage with TM and switched to AT&T and have been much happier with coverage. TM 5G coverage should be killer once they integrate the Sprint bands so will take a look at them again in a year or two once things settle down. That said, I am really happy with speed and coverage right now and it will probably get better as more of the first adopters rush to higher priced 5G.
  • Reply 14 of 17
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't 5G pretty much limited to line of sight?  
    edited April 2020
  • Reply 15 of 17
    MacPro said:
    Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't 5G pretty much limited to line of sight?  
    mmWave is the highest speed limited distance and object penetration version of 5G.  sub6 is lower speed (but still high) but longer distance on signal travel with greater object penetration.
  • Reply 16 of 17
    Verizon wireless was actually better at one time than it is now. My cousin has it and said he used to get crystal clear coverage everywhere including Canada and then something changed where he couldn’t get the Canada coverage any more. Still Verizon is the best but they really hit you over the head with the cost. I’ve been happy with T-Mobile. 
  • Reply 17 of 17
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,727member
    MacPro said:
    Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't 5G pretty much limited to line of sight?  
    mmWave is the highest speed limited distance and object penetration version of 5G.  sub6 is lower speed (but still high) but longer distance on signal travel with greater object penetration.
    Thanks.
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