T-Mobile First to Launch Nationwide Standalone 5G Network
T-Mobile First to Launch Nationwide Standalone 5G Network
August 20, 2020
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T-Mobile launches the world’s first commercial nationwide standalone (SA) 5G network, growing its 5G footprint. T-Mobile’s SA 5G network will expand coverage by 30 percent, covering roughly 250 million people across 1.3 million square miles. The SA design is the next generation of wireless connectivity, enabling 5G networks to offer faster speeds, lower latency, and greater connectivity.
Although many other carriers around the world have started to launch 5G over the past year or so, T-Mobile is the first to implement the SA 5G network. Other carriers have built 5G networks on the foundation of 4G networks, creating a non-standalone (NSA) network. The NSA version leverages 4G’s infrastructure, resulting in a device requiring both 4G and 5G signals to work, whereas a SA 5G network is completely independent of 4G.
T-Mobile is deploying 5G at 600 MHz while also leveraging 2.5 GHz mid-band and 28 GHz mmWave signals. This presents a combination of high-band, mid-band, and low-band spectrum that will allow T-Mobile to offer the best and largest 5G coverage with the fastest speeds.