When Will T-Mobile 5G Get Here?
Are you looking forward to the new wireless 5G technology on T-Mobile? We are, too. But just like the other telecom providers in the United States today, there are all sorts of roadblocks that have to be overcome to make it nationwide. One of top of the most significant difficulties that come with rolling out an entirely new network is that there are many factors outside of their control. They include local community regulations and even public health.
Not sure where T-Mobile 5G is, and even when it will get here? Follow along below, and we’ll hopefully help you answer those questions.
T-Mobile 5G-equipped Cities
Telecom providers are naturally ambitious with bringing 5G technology to market, with many of them — including T-Mobile — planning at the end of 2020 for a nationwide 5G rollout. That said, T-Mobile itself was planning on having thirty cities ready to go by the end of 2018 for a 5G launch in 2024 at some point.
The cities T-Mobile has available for initial use, as of this writing, are:
- Atlanta
- Cleveland
- Dallas
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- New York
Even so, these cities don’t have 5G available throughout the entire city. You’ll have to consult T-Mobile’s network coverage map to see the blocks and areas it is available.
T-Mobile Plans
Many carriers are increasing prices for 5G plans straight away. But what sets T-Mobile apart from the rest is that they’re continuing to offer unlimited data for 5G service, as well as keep plans at the current $70 per line that 4G calls for.
That said, you’re not going to be able to hook up to a 5G network straight away. Current smartphones don’t actually support 5G technology, so you’re going to have to purchase one of the newer flagship phones that are 5G-equipped.
Currently, T-Mobile only has a couple of 5G phones available — with the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G being the best of the bunch.
T-Mobile’s plans for 5G
The Magenta carrier is still on track to trying to offer nationwide 5G coverage by 2020, though that may spill into early 2020. The company plans to have wireless 5G tech available to over 200 million people in the US by that time. We’ll get into the weeds of how fast this is going to be, but T-Mobile is hopping over 100 Mbps at launch, and over 4 Gbps later on.
Earlier this year — around February 2019 — T-Mobile had built out a good portion of its 5G infrastructure to over 2,000 cities covering 42 states. And even though they have built these networks out, you’re still only going to get LTE network coverage on your 5G-capable phone. That’s because T-Mobile isn’t ready to switch over the towers yet, but they will certainly do so when they’re ready for launch.
5G for homes
One of the big appeals for 5G is that it’s not only for smartphones and mobile devices, but can be used to light up homes with fast wireless service as well. T-Mobile itself plans to offer its fixed broadband service to over half of the United States’ households by 2024. This will enable homes all over the nation to use Internet speeds north of 100 Mbps.
One of the difficulties that rural America has always had is slower connection speeds, whether on mobile or via WiFi. T-Mobile is hoping to help solve that, estimating that over 20% of its fixed broadband service will be used by rural households where modern technology might be more challenging to access. Here’s the promise from T-Mobile itself:
“A core promise of New T-Mobile is our commitment to bring real competition and real choice for in-home broadband to rural America.”
How fast will T-Mobile 5G Be?
If you didn’t already know, 5G has to support a minimum peak download speed, according to regulators. Standards are set for 2.5 GB/s (gigabytes per second). Actual regulations might call for 20 Gb per second, but this is actually in gigabits, not gigabytes. Dividing it into speeds that you’ll see every day, the standard is actually the 2.5 gigabytes, as mentioned above per second.
That said, download speeds are actually going to be substantially lower than that. Between having to account for supporting millions of devices on a single cell and conditions not always being perfect, you’re going to be looking at megabyte speeds, not gigabyte likely. That goes for any telecom, but T-Mobile is estimating faster speeds than other telecoms — at 450 megabits per second, which sits at 56 or so megabytes per second.
Verdict
T-Mobile is struggling with many of the problems that other telecom providers are experiencing. Not only is the new infrastructure an expensive investment, but there are local ordinances and regulations that T-Mobile is fighting with as well. T-Mobile plans to have at least many of the significant, dense cities covered with 5G technology by 2021 at some point, but a nationwide rollout is going to be a little further.
Are you looking forward to wireless 5G technology? What are you looking forward to most about the new and improved speeds? Let us know in the comments section below — we’d love to hear from you!