LG K30 is a low-cost 600MHz (Band 71) phone at T-Mobile

Late last week, T-Mobile released the LG K30, which is a budget Android smartphone that costs $225. There’s nothing particularly notable about the wallet-friendly device, save one thing: it supports T-Mobile’s 600MHz network, otherwise known as band 71.

The LG V30, released in October last year, was the first device to go on sale at T-Mobile that supports band 71. However, that’s a flagship device with an appropriate flagship price, which might be over the budget of some folks looking to take advantage of band 71 coverage. The new LG K30 gives buyers a new option.

For those of you who are not aware, band 71 is one of the old frequencies that would transmit television signals. There are few TV stations that use the band anymore, and the government auctioned off the bands to wireless carriers last year. T-Mobile spent nearly $8 billion buying spectrum at that auction, its largest-ever investment.

The reason T-Mobile spent all that money is to increase coverage in rural areas of the United States. One of the chief complaints of T-Mobile service is that coverage is great in cities but terrible once you head into small towns. T-Mobile hopes that band 71 will give the company a new edge in rural areas and help it better compete with AT&T and Verizon.

However, not many phones support 600MHz signal, and most that do are flagship devices like the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus. The LG K30 should be a popular device given its price point.

The LG K30 has a 5.3-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720. It has a 13MP rear camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, a 2880mAh battery, and 32GB of internal storage. Powering everything is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor and 2GB of RAM.

It includes a rear fingerprint sensor, a headphone jack, and runs on Android 7.1 Nougat. Grab your LG K30 by hitting the button below!