T-Mobile claims it will be the first nationwide 5G carrier in 2020

In April, T-Mobile announced it had bought about 45 percent of the low-band 600 MHz spectrum that the Federal Communications Commission was auctioning off in the US. Today, the company claims it will use it, along with other spectrum bands that it has access to, for the creation of the first nationwide 5G mobile network in the US.

This news comes several days after rival AT&T announced it has started offering what it called “5G Evolution” speeds to Austin, Texas, with plans to expand that network to 20 other metro areas in the US by the end of the year. However, as T-Mobile pointed out today, AT&T’s “5G” network is really just using current 4G technology.

In a blog post, T-Mobile’s chief technology officer Neville Ray stated that in addition to the 600 MHz spectrum that it recently bought to the tune of nearly $8 billion, it will also access “200 MHz of spectrum in the 28/39 GHz bands covering nearly 100 million people in major metropolitan areas” for its 5G network. He added that T-Mo also has a lot of mid-band spectrum access that can be used for 5G deployment.

Neville claims that when the final 5G standards are confirmed, and the first smartphones that support those standards are released, T-Mobile will be able to launch its 5G network very quickly. The first such locations on the network should go live in 2019, according to him, and the full nationwide rollout of the 5G network should happen in 2020.

So there you go; if you want true 5G speeds, you will only have to wait about three years or so, hopefully. You can bet that there will be a lot of people, especially T-Mobile’s rivals, who will jump on the carrier if it cannot reach those goals.

Do you think T-Mobile can accomplish this feat, or is it just blowing smoke to go after its competition? Let us know what you think in the comments!