T-Mobile has set December 6 as the date for its launch of the low-band 5G. As the carrier claims, it will cover 200 million people in the United States. And though this is going to be one of the largest 5G markets on the globe, it’s still far behind South Korea and China.
The company’s CEO, John Ledger, and President and Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert announced the launch date in a recent event on Thursday. The company expects that by the end of this year, 5G networks will cover 5,000 cities in the United States.
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At the same time, the carrier will be offering 5G terminals that are enabled to work in the T-Mobile 5G network. Those terminals include the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren Edition smartphones. The operator also claims the download speed will be around 100Mbps.
This is in contrast to AT&T and Verizon’s early introduction of 5G using the millimeter-wave spectrum. They offer 1Gbps download speeds, but only in some cities, without the coverage of the country like T-Mobile.
Neville Ray, T-Mobile’s chief technology officer, made a few promises at the press conference as well. He said T-Mobile is going to acquire Sprint early next year, according to the plan. So with the addition of Sprint’s 2.5GHz band, the download speed will increase to ‘hundreds of megabytes’ per second.
T-Mobile said it will not charge a higher fee for 5G services. ‘That’s in big contrast to our competitors,’ Sievert says. Verizon, for instance, has said it will eventually ask for a $10 upcharge for its 5G service, although it hasn’t asked early users for that premium yet.