T-Mobile slows US 5G launch, postpones some frequencies until late 2019 [u]
The U.S. branch of T-Mobile is delaying its 5G launch from the first half of 2019 until the second, owing to a lack of compatible phones, its CTO said in a Monday interview. [Updated with correction by T-Mobile]
The hope was originally that phone makers would already be in a position to ship devices with 600-megahertz band support, Neville Ray explained to CNet. One of the first 5G phones, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, relies on higher-frequency bands that mostly limit it to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.
T-Mobile's focus on a lower band is deliberate, since while the millimeter wave technology used by AT&T and Verizon has faster speeds, its range is short. T-Mobile has a small number of millimeter wave towers.
"You can't go to a U.S. consumer and charge them a big premium and it works on three street corners," Ray commented.
One of the carrier's rivals, Sprint, will likewise skip millimeter wave when it deploys 5G in May. Even without it, devices may be able hit speeds as high as 430 megabits per second -- considerably faster than most 4G connections. Sprint CEO Michel Combes said that if a merger with T-Mobile goes through, Sprint will be able to deploy 5G faster and with wider coverage. That deal faces opposition from parties concerned about shrinking competition in the U.S. telecoms industry.
Apple isn't expected to add 5G to iPhones or iPads until 2020. That's probably because of its ongoing legal battles with Qualcomm, slow modem development at Intel, and the fact that general 5G coverage should remain small by the time this fall's iPhones are ready.
5G is considered crucial to the advancement of technologies like self-driving cars and augmented reality, both of which Apple is known to be working on.
Update: T-Mobile tells AppleInsider that the CNET piece is inaccurate, and that only its 600-megahertz deployment is coming in the second half of 2019. 5G on other bands is still coming in the first half.
"Everything is still on track as originally planned," a spokesman said.
The hope was originally that phone makers would already be in a position to ship devices with 600-megahertz band support, Neville Ray explained to CNet. One of the first 5G phones, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, relies on higher-frequency bands that mostly limit it to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.
T-Mobile's focus on a lower band is deliberate, since while the millimeter wave technology used by AT&T and Verizon has faster speeds, its range is short. T-Mobile has a small number of millimeter wave towers.
"You can't go to a U.S. consumer and charge them a big premium and it works on three street corners," Ray commented.
One of the carrier's rivals, Sprint, will likewise skip millimeter wave when it deploys 5G in May. Even without it, devices may be able hit speeds as high as 430 megabits per second -- considerably faster than most 4G connections. Sprint CEO Michel Combes said that if a merger with T-Mobile goes through, Sprint will be able to deploy 5G faster and with wider coverage. That deal faces opposition from parties concerned about shrinking competition in the U.S. telecoms industry.
Apple isn't expected to add 5G to iPhones or iPads until 2020. That's probably because of its ongoing legal battles with Qualcomm, slow modem development at Intel, and the fact that general 5G coverage should remain small by the time this fall's iPhones are ready.
5G is considered crucial to the advancement of technologies like self-driving cars and augmented reality, both of which Apple is known to be working on.
Update: T-Mobile tells AppleInsider that the CNET piece is inaccurate, and that only its 600-megahertz deployment is coming in the second half of 2019. 5G on other bands is still coming in the first half.
"Everything is still on track as originally planned," a spokesman said.
Comments
Not
Apple seems to be one of the very few not rolling out devices. And that's only because they can't find a supplier for the modems. Meanwhile, 5G will be up and running in major cities and on Android phones at the time of the next iPhone release. Embarrassing for Apple unless they can come up with something before then.
The only way to break this stalemate is for the regulators to provide some rules of the road (and for Congress, at a minimum, help speed along the T-Mobile/Sprint merger).
So how big is the big premium for 5G that won’t be deployed in a manner that is consistently useful, beneficial to a U.S. consumer?
We can’t make a blanket statement based on our own experience and the loud voices of select people where we can’t be sure how well they represent the public overall.
Benefits include -
- better performance (this is of dubious value in the near term; the true performance gains won't be seen until the network is widely available)
- being on the cutting edge. This is more a benefit of perception than a true benefit, but there is definitely a cost to being seen as 'behind the curve.'
When 5G will be consistently useful in the US remains to be seen. It's defiantly a chicken and egg type problem - we won't see widespread development of services that leverage 5g until there is reasonable network coverage, but the network rollouts that have been announced are still relatively limited and keep getting pushed back. On top of that, there are virtually no actual smartphone uses for 5G currently or in the near future (some will disagree with me on this point.)I don't think regulations would necessarily be a good idea here - congress moves infinitely slower than technology and they are even slower to update regulations that are outdated. I'd be afraid the regulations would end up compromising things more than helping.
All of the networks are pushing towards 5G and I think market competition will be enough to push the rollout. Having good 5G coverage will be an important selling point, just like 4G/LTE coverage was a few years ago.
I brought up the Congress in relation to the springt-TMobile merger.
The networks and the 5G phones are rolling out together starting with this year. Apple apparently won't be one of them only because they can't find a supplier rather than any technical reasons.
The only thing the government could do to speed it up would be to drop this silly anti-Huawei / MAGA stuff. They seem to have the cheapest and best 5G equipment.
As for the iPhone, 2-3 years from September a phone limited to 4G will be quite obsolete. But that is what Apple will likely be selling -- not for any of the reasons you sited -- but because they can't seem to find a supplier. Qualcomm is off the table. Intel can't. And Huawei is being attacked by our president.