T-Mobile has new coverage in rural regions thanks to its prolonged-range, 600MHz LTE network. The carrier won’t offer a map of in which you want a Band seventy-one cellphone, so we made one for you.
According to our one-of-a-kind crowdsourced insurance map, T-Mobile’s low-band LTE network has extended the service’s attain throughout the northern and central US. The 600MHz or “band seventy-one” network, which has best-been stay given that August 2017, now covers 340 rural cities and cities T-Mobile by no means blanketed earlier than, consistent with the provider.
T-Mobile won its nationwide Band 71 licenses in a 2017 public sale, but it nevertheless hasn’t been able to roll all of it out. The spectrum used to be TV channels 38-51, and while TV stations had been transferring their alerts to decrease channels, a few still have until mid-2020 to make the switch.
We worked with Ookla Speedtest to perceive all the ZIP codes given that April 2018, where T-Mobile customers with Android phones had run velocity checks on the low-band community. While T-Mobile could no longer provide us its respectable 600MHz map, we have been capable of consult with the carrier to take away fake positives from our map.
Our ensuing map does not show quite all of T-Mobile’s low-band network—it most effectively shows wherein we had been capable of discovering the exams. Many areas of the United States also are covered by using T-Mobile’s 700MHz Band 12 network, which we aren’t specializing in here. For a full-scale T-Mobile insurance map, take a look at the carrier’s very own internet site.
The community additionally covers pretty a whole lot of all of Puerto Rico.
Compare that 600MHz map to T-Mobile’s full, present-day LTE insurance map, which the carrier supplied us, and you can see below:
As you could see, T-Mobile has made excellent strides over the northern part of the US. If you live in southern Maine, northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, Missouri, Kansas, southern Illinois, or New Mexico, you’ll see a good deal better T-Mobile insurance now than 12 months ago.
“When I needed to get my tires modified in Wenatchee (Washington), I changed into capable of tether my pc and feature speeds of 20-25Mbps easily in places in which I couldn’t get coverage for voice before,” stated Mark McDiarmid, T-Mobile’s SVP of Radio Network Engineering & Technology Development.
The community now covers forty-three states and Puerto Rico, T-Mobile stated. But while the business enterprise now owns a 600MHz spectrum protecting the whole US, it hasn’t covered the state. Still, because it’s been awaiting TV stations currently occupying their airwaves to “clean” the spectrum, a method this is persevering with. T-Mobile expects to clean areas overlaying 272 million human beings by the quiet of this yr, the company stated.
Many existing subscribers are not getting that insurance, though, because their telephones aren’t Band seventy one-compatible. Currently, 29 devices support 600MHz, along with each high-quit phone, just like the Samsung Galaxy S9, Apple iPhone XS, and OnePlus 6T, and occasional-cease devices just like the T-Mobile Revvl 2 and Motorola E5 Plus. But all 600MHz telephones have been launched after August 2017, which means that if you’re wearing an older smartphone, you may not be able to see or hear this community.
Rural wireless coverage has been a warm topic recently because T-Mobile is pledging that it will cover rural areas even better if allowed to merge with Sprint. The Vermont Department of Public Service additionally did an unparalleled coverage pressure to show terrible mobile coverage on all of the networks in more rural parts of Vermont.
According to the Vermont state drive check, the carrier’s insurance—especially in west-imperative Vermont—is weaker than Verizon’s or AT&T’s. But in northwest Vermont, close to St. Albans, where T-Mobile now has 600MHz, the pressure test showed T-Mobile insurance is much stronger. According to Spectrum Gateway, the TV stations conserving 600MHz spectrum in Vermont are scheduled to transport out in their frequencies by using March 3 and July 3, 2020.
What This Means for 5G
T-Mobile can use the identical 600MHz spectrum to set up its “national” 5G community, but you can not use this map to expect wherein T-Mobile will deploy 5G. That’s because T-Mobile is splitting its 600MHz allocation between 4G and 5G, depending on what other frequencies the provider has in play and what number of 5G handsets are to be had.
Remember, T-Mobile has national licenses for 600MHz, but it hasn’t hooked it up anywhere for diverse reasons. In a few places, the TV stations have not cleared out. In others, the service may think it has enough 4G spectrum between 700MHz, 1700MHz, and 1900MHz, and so can be preserving returned its complete 600MHz allocation for 5G.
In existing 600MHz LTE zones, T-Mobile will probably use a fab characteristic of the Qualcomm X55 modem to dynamically blend 4G and 5G within the same spectrum. On 600MHz, 5G maybe 25-50 percent faster than 4G, T-Mobile exec Karri Kuoppamaki said the last yr. The provider will slide greater 600MHz over to 5G as greater gadgets come to be available and more visitors actions over to the 5G network.
In any case, T-Mobile will keep a few 600MHz for 4G in regions in which it did not have insurance before, which means that if you do not have a 600MHz-successful telephone and you’re considering T-Mobile, you must get one right now.