T-Mobile Expands 5G Network with New Mid-Band Spectrum Layer

By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor

T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) announced that it has expanded its Ultra Capacity 5G nationwide coverage and capacity. The company says it is adding a “massive boost” to its Ultra Capacity 5G network with a new nationwide layer of 1900 MHz mid-band 5G spectrum. Use of 1900 MHz spectrum dates back to 2G when Sprint launched the U.S.’s first Personal Communications Service digital cellular network in November, 1995, in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. T-Mobile garnered that large swath of 1900 MHz spectrum when it merged with Sprint in April 2020. Today, T-Mobile commands an aggregate national weighted average spectrum depth of 323 MHz across the various 5G mid-band frequencies it owns. The 178 MHz of EBS/BRS 2.5 GHz spectrum that it also gained in the Sprint deal represents the lion’s share. The 1900 MHz band adds another 66 MHz. The company also has 37 MHz of AWS-1 (1.7/2.7 GHz) spectrum. The remaining 42 MHz is primarily 27 MHz of C-band and 12 MHz of 3.45 GHz, won in FCC Auctions 107 and 110, respectively. Continue Reading