T-Mobile Completes Merger With Sprint, Promises 'Transformational' 5G Network

[progx]

Yay...50-100Mbps. Let me see, I thought I had a gigabit LTE modem...Considering limitations of 5G implementation, wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to improve LTE infrastructure?

T-Mobile is essentially doing that with their 5G network. To them, 5G is making sure everyone has a consistent speed and experience everywhere. Which is fine by me. Verizon has the fastest one... but you have to be within a certain distance to get it. AT&T is running a marketing racket with “5GE”.

They’re not charging extra for it unlike the other two: Verizon is additional $10 per month and AT&T was $5ish or more.

I would imagine, T-Mobile will be able to broadcast on Sprint’s frequency with their current technology, along with their other bands. Vice versa for Sprint since they run CDMA versus T-Mobile’s GSM. This will be interesting to see now two different network infrastructures will come together.

 

[BuffaloTF]

T-Mobile is essentially doing that with their 5G network. To them, 5G is making sure everyone has a consistent speed and experience everywhere. Which is fine by me. Verizon has the fastest one... but you have to be within a certain distance to get it. AT&T is running a marketing racket with “5GE”.

They’re not charging extra for it unlike the other two: Verizon is additional $10 per month and AT&T was $5ish or more.

I would imagine, T-Mobile will be able to broadcast on Sprint’s frequency with their current technology, along with their other bands. Vice versa for Sprint since they run CDMA versus T-Mobile’s GSM. This will be interesting to see now two different network infrastructures will come together.

Sigh... they both run LTE. GSM is dead, replaced by UMTS, which itself dies in 2022. CDMA ends December 31st. Sprint has been roaming on T-Mobile for 2 years already.

 

[gsmornot]

I did... they both use LTE. It's a firmware upgrade -- iPhones could use the full breadth of both immediately; Android phones are tied to whatever frequency bands their manufacturer blessed them with but whatever extras they have can be used immediately as well... it's also a firmware upgrade and every Android phone has penta-band UMTS and all Sprint devices are already roaming on T-Mobile. Bringing up CDMA and GSM would've been an issue in 2002, it is not an issue in 2020. GSM, for one, doesn't exist anymore; it's been refarmed to UMTS - UMTS, which even had it's service depreciated in 2015 when HSPA+ was shut down - full shutdown for UMTS is 2022. CDMA is effectively dead, Verizon cut off roaming last December and the full shutdown is Dec 31st this year.

This is going to be very quick...

There we go. The other poster only used two words to reply. Both still support CDMA and GSM and until they can get the users migrated off and repurpose the bands they will still be used. 2022 is the current date so 3-5 years to repurpose everything might be a bit long but I dont think it will all be so quick. We’re not talking about LTE, we are talking how long before T-Mobile users get the benefit of Sprints holdings. They have an LTE band today. If they were flush with coverage would theY be up for sale. T-Mobile will want to convert the Sprint holdings over the next several years to future use that will benefit the users. Thanks for the reply and telling me in more detail where I I misspoke. That I can respect.

 

[BuffaloTF]

There we go. The other poster only used two words to reply. Both still support CDMA and GSM and until they can get the users migrated off and repurpose the bands they will still be used. 2022 is the current date so 3-5 years to repurpose everything might be a bit long but I dont think it will all be so quick. We’re not talking about LTE, we are talking how long before T-Mobile users get the benefit of Sprints holdings. They have an LTE band today. If they were flush with coverage would theY be up for sale. T-Mobile will want to convert the Sprint holdings over the next several years to future use that will benefit the users. Thanks for the reply and telling me in more detail where I I misspoke. That I can respect.

We are talking about LTE, though. The networks are LTE. Abandoned legacy networks are either already gone or completely irrelevant.

GSM is long gone. Any pockets left are for M2M applications only, not for voice - think farmland in the Great Plains. UMTS /= GSM, and all Sprint phones support it anyway. They've already been using the LTE for 2 years. And T-Mobile can use Sprint's LTE immediately with the same changes to firmware. They aren't keeping Sprint's 800 mhz, that goes to Dish, so they don't need to change anything with that - Dish does. PCS is running only 1 5 mhz block of CDMA, the rest is LTE. And 2500/2600 is all LTE.

You're looking at a changeover on 1 channel on a network that was purpose-built for hosting other networks. It's a card swap at the site. It's an easier change than the Metro PCS swap, which took 6 months.

 

[zarmanto]

DC now has the AT&T 5G Evolution, which is much quicker (in my experience) than normal LTE. I wish I had it up where I live.

I'm sorry to have to break this to you, John, but AT&T's "5G Evolution" moniker has nothing whatsoever to do with actual 5G. "Evolution" is only AT&T's latest marketing label for recent updates they've been making to their existing 4G LTE network equipment -- and in truth, it's no different than the technology which both Verizon and T-Mobile have likewise been deploying to upgrade their respective 4G networks. As such, if you hit the right tower on any one of the three major carriers, you can already get in excess of 100Mbps quite regularly. I'm a Sprint customer -- now T-Mobile, I guess -- and I just tested my speeds out at 157Mbps down and 3.6Mbps up. (So yeah... upload is still pretty weak, but that's not surprising.)

Or to put it another way: You seem to have fallen for AT&T's misleading marketing-speak, my friend. And here, I 'd been wondering why they so blatantly lie about their network whenever they get the chance... I guess the answer is, some portion of their customers actually believe those lies.

 

[JosephAW]

How are they going to apply firmware updates for iPhone devices that can't run iOS 13? My 6 is still going strong on Sprint.

 

[hagjohn]

I'm sorry to have to break this to you, John, but AT&T's "5G Evolution" moniker has nothing whatsoever to do with actual 5G. "Evolution" is only AT&T's latest marketing label for recent updates they've been making to their existing 4G LTE network equipment -- and in truth, it's no different than the technology which both Verizon and T-Mobile have likewise been deploying to upgrade their respective 4G networks. As such, if you hit the right tower on any one of the three major carriers, you can already get in excess of 100Mbps quite regularly. I'm a Sprint customer -- now T-Mobile, I guess -- and I just tested my speeds out at 157Mbps down and 3.6Mbps up. (So yeah... upload is still pretty weak, but that's not surprising.)

Or to put it another way: You seem to have fallen for AT&T's misleading marketing-speak, my friend. And here, I 'd been wondering why they so blatantly lie about their network whenever they get the chance... I guess the answer is, some portion of their customers actually believe those lies.

I already knew 5G Evolution is not 5G. I'm not an idiot.

 

[Essaux]

I am with T-Mobile for 7 years now and couldn’t be happier.

Sure there have been problems along the way but I am pretty certain these problems occur with any carrier.

The best thing for me as I travel a lot between the US and Europe is that I have one plan and I can call for free in either continent. I can use unlimited internet in Europe and I get 20gb of internet in the US. That is plenty enough for me if I’m there for a week or two for business.

All this for one fixed price. Amazingly affordable price at that.

Don’t know much about the other carriers but I can’t imagine them having similar good deals for intercontinental usage.

 

[glowplug]

What does this mean for GoogleFi iPhone users? Is it effectively no difference?

 

[BuffaloTF]

I already knew 5G Evolution is not 5G. I'm not an idiot.

Then don't call on it as though it's any different than any other LTE network - it's confusing. It's a 4x4 network with 256 QAM on LTE. Everyone has that available - nobody else calls it 5G.

AT&T, does, however, run actual NR 5G just like T-Mobile does off of low frequency bands (n2 and n5). Though... they've named their mmWave network something stupid too -- 5G Plus.

 

[MacBH928]

What is this joke? 100 Mbps on 5G and 50Mbps for rural? 4G already reaches speeds of 90Mbps+, I know I have an LTE phone. 5G is supposed to be 10x faster, assuming 4G is at 30Mbps, minimum 5G should be 300Mbps. At these promises, T-Mobile should just stick to the further reaching, more convenient, 4G network since it delivers the speeds they are aiming for.

Plus, I am interested why Legere left, isn't he like the face of T-Mobile

 

[gsmornot]

We are talking about LTE, though. The networks are LTE. Abandoned legacy networks are either already gone or completely irrelevant.

GSM is long gone. Any pockets left are for M2M applications only, not for voice - think farmland in the Great Plains. UMTS /= GSM, and all Sprint phones support it anyway. They've already been using the LTE for 2 years. And T-Mobile can use Sprint's LTE immediately with the same changes to firmware. They aren't keeping Sprint's 800 mhz, that goes to Dish, so they don't need to change anything with that - Dish does. PCS is running only 1 5 mhz block of CDMA, the rest is LTE. And 2500/2600 is all LTE.

You're looking at a changeover on 1 channel on a network that was purpose-built for hosting other networks. It's a card swap at the site. It's an easier change than the Metro PCS swap, which took 6 months.

Looking at both Sprint and T-Mobiles FAQ of what to expect next, they say it will take about 3 years to fully integrate. They dont even plan to stop selling service on the two networks separately for a couple of years. My guess was 3-5 and I still think it will be somewhere between there. It will take a couple of years just to get all the circuit info right to get a common core built and turn off the old services. I’m still just chatting about things here, I dont have any inside on this, so this is from a random person on the internet. Ha.

 

[JosephAW]

Will any of this merger mean the end of no cellular data while on a call with CDMA Sprint networks?

 

[BuffaloTF]

Looking at both Sprint and T-Mobiles FAQ of what to expect next, they say it will take about 3 years to fully integrate. They dont even plan to stop selling service on the two networks separately for a couple of years. My guess was 3-5 and I still think it will be somewhere between there. It will take a couple of years just to get all the circuit info right to get a common core built and turn off the old services. I’m still just chatting about things here, I dont have any inside on this, so this is from a random person on the internet. Ha.

But that factors in handset turnover - so the end user device can access the network in full. Don’t neglect to note that many Android’s ship with specific frequency bands for a single carrier - not the full host of them like a Pixel, iPhone or more recent Galaxy devices. The network end of it is simple, getting a large majority of people to upgrade their phone is a chore - we here aren’t normal - we’re niche... and even amongst this group you’ll find people rolling with devices several years old and pushing even Apple’s drop in support.

 

[kyleh22]

DC now has the AT&T 5G Evolution, which is much quicker (in my experience) than normal LTE. I wish I had it up where I live.

I didn't notice too much of a difference between LTE and 5Ge. I never did a speedtest between the two though...

 

[Wide opeN]

T-Mobile FTW!!!

 

[The Oak]

What is this joke? 100 Mbps on 5G and 50Mbps for rural? 4G already reaches speeds of 90Mbps+, I know I have an LTE phone. 5G is supposed to be 10x faster, assuming 4G is at 30Mbps, minimum 5G should be 300Mbps. At these promises, T-Mobile should just stick to the further reaching, more convenient, 4G network since it delivers the speeds they are aiming for.

Plus, I am interested why Legere left, isn't he like the face of T-Mobile

Lets make sure we compare apples to apples.

4g and 5g on the same band is going to pretty much give you the same speeds.

 

[MacBH928]

Lets make sure we compare apples to apples.

4g and 5g on the same band is going to pretty much give you the same speeds.

If its going to behave like 4G then why call it 5G?

 

[JosephAW]

I live in a rural area so I'm happy to get 1-3 mbps down. 5G means nothing to us out here.

 

[The Oak]

If its going to behave like 4G then why call it 5G?

5G does have some technology advancements over 4G - definitely. However, each band is like a highway with a speed limit. For the 5G stuff running on the same bands on the 4G, the difference between 4G and 5G probably will not be perceived.

Now, when we talk about the high band stuff, 28Ghz+ ... yes, you will definitely get some screaming speeds with 5G. With that being said, if 4G ran on those bands too ... guess what ... you would get the similar speeds.