T-Mobile 5G Gets Boost as Sprint Network Merging Kicks Off

[MacRumors]

The merger between T-Mobile and Sprint in the United States was completed at the beginning of April, and the two companies are wasting no time combining their networks.

T-Mobile today announced that Sprint's 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum is now live in parts of Philadelphia and is coming soon to New York City, adding "critical depth and additional speed" to T-Mobile's 5G network.

With the addition, T-Mobile users in New York will be the first to be able to access low-band, mid-band, and mmWave 5G. Later this month, current Sprint customers who have a Samsung Galaxy S20 5G smartphone will be able to tap into T-Mobile's 5G network in 5,000 cities and towns across the United States.

This marks the first giant step toward supercharging the Un-carrier's nationwide 5G network by beginning to combine the assets of T-Mobile and Sprint, just weeks after completing their merger. The company's unique combination of low, mid and high-band mmWave spectrum makes T-Mobile the only company with the resources to create a transformative network capable of driving innovation across the country and providing people in cities and rural areas with a 5G network the other guys can't match.

As of now, Sprint customers can roam on the T-Mobile network, providing access to more than double the number of LTE sites than on Sprint's network alone, expanding cellular availability to everywhere T-Mobile's network covers.

Article Link: T-Mobile 5G Gets Boost as Sprint Network Merging Kicks Off

 

[gigapocket1]

Can’t begin to imagine how complicated it is to integrate 2 networks. Especially with something as finicky as signal waves

 

[69Mustang]

Can’t begin to imagine how complicated it is to integrate 2 networks. Especially with something as finicky as signal waves

/remembers Sprint merging with Nextel...

{shudders}

 

[konqerror]

Can’t begin to imagine how complicated it is to integrate 2 networks. Especially with something as finicky as signal waves

They're not going to be integrated, the plan is to eventually shutdown the Sprint network where the coverage overlaps and reuse the spectrum on existing T-Mobile sites. That's what happened when Sprint bought Nextel, when T-Mobile bought MetroPCS, and when Cingular bought AT&T Wireless.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Can’t begin to imagine how complicated it is to integrate 2 networks. Especially with something as finicky as signal waves

With the right engineers and pole climbing engineers it could take about 11mths to complete within a city - permits allowing. We've seen 3 in from TDMA > GSM/GPRS/EDGE > LTE by 3 carriers here in Canada. Surely not 5G but equipment from the base station down to the antennae had to be replaced.

EDIT: Considering the 'fear' in UK and the burnings of towers, I can now understand why T-Mobile and AT&T back in 2000 hid towers in plain site (cows, trees, etc). I can see such a huge endeaver taking over 12months - the length of which would be inbetween cities.

 

[whiteonline]

They're not going to be integrated, the plan is to eventually shutdown the Sprint network where the coverage overlaps and reuse the spectrum on existing T-Mobile sites. That's what happened when Sprint bought Nextel, when T-Mobile bought MetroPCS, and when Cingular bought AT&T Wireless.

There’s just a bit more work behind the scenes on the way to that. It is very complicated.

 

[oilers780]

I hope this merger is for the good. I am quite skeptical about it.

 

[TeamMojo]

Might be time to finally consider ditching AT&T.

 

[AManInACan]

With the right engineers and pole climbing engineers it could take about 11mths to complete within a city - permits allowing. We've seen 3 in from TDMA > GSM/GPRS/EDGE > LTE by 3 carriers here in Canada. Surely not 5G but equipment from the base station down to the antennae had to be replaced.

The fact that everyone is using LTE now helps avoid some of the hardware upgrades. Just allowing the phones to use both networks will make a difference right away. I'm sure that T-mobile has been installing hardware that can use frequencies from both T-mobile and Sprint for a little while now and it sounds like they are turning that on today. Then the hardware additions and retirements roll on for years.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

/remembers Sprint merging with Nextel...

{shudders}

Those were completely different networks. This is hardly the same. Both T-Mo and Sprint operate LTE networks. Sprint was already planning to sunset it's CDMA network soon. This merger is not the "nightmare" people in this thread are suggesting. As a matter of fact... if any merger made sense... it was this one.

 

[zorinlynx]

Can’t begin to imagine how complicated it is to integrate 2 networks. Especially with something as finicky as signal waves

It's really not that hard. Both networks are LTE, so all they have to do at first is enable full roaming between the networks. Now customers' devices will operate on whichever network is better in their area.

Once that's done, they can start shutting down one network in redundant areas, and make the spectrum available for the other network.

 

[handle manifest]

From the press release: The Un-carrier will continue building out 2.5 GHz 5G quickly, lighting it up in New York City next. I'm not sure what "lighting it up" means. Is it an overly hyped way of saying that T-Mobile customers in NYC will get access to Sprint's existing mid-band 5G in NYC?

 

[SBlue1]

5G? Watch Corona cases go up by a boatload!

...


Just kidding folks! LOL!

 

[hxlover904]

I wonder if this is going to help current Tmo customers much. It looked like sprints coverage was by far the worst of the 4.
And I can’t wait til the new 12’s come out so I can take advantage of their low band 5g.

 

[oilers780]

I wonder if this is going to help current Tmo customers much. It looked like sprints coverage was by far the worst of the 4.
And I can’t wait til the new 12’s come out so I can take advantage of their low band 5g.

It would only benefit TMO customers if they allow Sprint's network to cover any sort of deadzones in TMO's network itself.

 

[Rychiar]

My Tmobile bill was $10 less than normal this month. in the 3 years I've had it it was $70 and now $60... just wish the merger led to better LTE coverage... I remember reading how the XS Max was gonna be so much better and use mobiles 600mhx network. too bad that never showed up here in CT... I can barely a make a call from my house and I live in a city...

 

[IIGS User]

/remembers Sprint merging with Nextel...

{shudders}

As a frequent Nextel user back in the late 90's and early 2000's I can remember.

There were serious technical difficulties with iDEN and the spectrum it inhabited. There was no way they were going to merge this into Sprint's existing network properly.

Nextel was a great service for some people. We used it extensively in public safety for car to car communications for years. The talkgroups were useful for operations where people typically had their own cell phone (and chose Nextel if they worked in the business) and were not issued portable radios which, when I started my career were a luxury item.

 

[hxlover904]

It would only benefit TMO customers if they allow Sprint's network to cover any sort of deadzones in TMO's network itself.

And are there many areas where that’s the case? I’d think not. But I’m not sure.

.. I can barely a make a call from my house and I live in a city...

you’re not using wifi calling? I don’t have very good signal at my house either, but with Wi-Fi calling it doesn’t really matter much. Except for those rare times when the power is out.

 

[Breaking Good]

This is awesome! Instead of having seven blocks of 5G coverage in the city they'll now have twelve.

I'm a happy Sprint customer and I'm very impressed with everything T-mobile has done to shake up the industry. But I'm not holding my breath for 5G coverage. It is going to be at least three years metro areas and probably five years or longer for other areas before we'll see any appreciable coverage.

I think it will eventually be a game changer, but not in smartphone connectivity. The areas is will really make a difference is autonomous vehicles and home based broadband.

 

[Stryder541]

Might be time to finally consider ditching AT&T.

I was starting to look around, but “free” HBO and soon HBO Max Has me hooked

 

[Unity451]

Might be time to finally consider ditching AT&T.

It's always a good time to ditch AT&T.

 

[KPOM]

Those were completely different networks. This is hardly the same. Both T-Mo and Sprint operate LTE networks. Sprint was already planning to sunset it's CDMA network soon. This merger is not the "nightmare" people in this thread are suggesting. As a matter of fact... if any merger made sense... it was this one.

It’s a little more complex to the extent that Sprint and T-Mobile had started their 5G rollouts. T-Mobile’s sub-6GHz 5G network doesn’t work with Sprint’s 5G devices. But overall, this is a lot more straightforward than Sprint trying to integrate Nextel.

 

[JosephAW]

I updated my tower info by calling ##873283#
No big change. Maybe a bar more.

 

[kingtj]

Honestly, the part I've been looking forward to are the new T-Mobile "Connect" plans they promised. They promoted those, saying we'd get them as soon as the Sprint merger was finished. And now .... crickets.

I'd switch my grandfathered-in plan with them I keep paying for now to one of those Connect plans the first day they made it available. Sounds like unlimited talk and text with the same 2GB of LTE data I have now for $15 a month, or $25 a month for 5GB of data? Yes, please! (I never moved to the current "unlimited data" plans they offer because they'd increase my monthly cost by at least another $15 a month or so, and I use wi-fi often enough, I just don't worry about exceeding my 2GB of monthly data.)

 

[konqerror]

Honestly, the part I've been looking forward to are the new T-Mobile "Connect" plans they promised. They promoted those, saying we'd get them as soon as the Sprint merger was finished. And now .... crickets.

What?

Sign up for Connect by T-Mobile Prepaid service

Learn about and how to sign up for Connect by T-Mobile Prepaid service.

www.t-mobile.com

They launched a week early due to COVID.

T-Mobile Connect Launches Early to Help the Most Vulnerable in America Get and Stay Connected - T-Mobile Newsroom

In response to COVID-19, the Un-carrier is introducing lower-priced options, available starting Wednesday.

www.t-mobile.com