T-Mobile extends 5G lead, 200 million covered by mid-band ahead of schedule
What you need to know
- T-Mobile has reached its 2021 goal of 200 million people covered weeks ahead of schedule.
- T-Mobile's 5G covers a total of 308 million people, 1.7 million square miles.
- Research firm Umlaut found that T-Mobile has the fastest download and upload speeds in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Orlando, and Salt Lake City.
T-Mobile has been aggressively expanding its 5G coverage throughout 2021 with the ambitious goal of covering 200 million people with its Ultra Capacity mid-band 5G by the end of the year. T-Mobile announced that it has achieved its goal weeks ahead of schedule, further extending its 5G lead. This is supplementary to T-Mobile's low-band Extended Range 5G, which covers 308 million people.
T-Mobile's mid-band dominance is driven by its access to the 2.5GHz spectrum it got from its purchase of Sprint. This has allowed T-Mobile to charge ahead with 5G while competitors AT&T and Verizon await the availability of the C-band spectrum expected to become available in early 2022.
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said the following in a statement regarding the carrier's achievement:
On top of reaching its coverage goal, T-Mobile has also been named as the fastest carrier in four cities in a report by Umlaut and commissioned by T-Mobile. In Cincinnati, Cleveland, Orlando, and Salt Lake City, T-Mobile's network outperformed the competition for download speeds. In two of these cities, T-Mobile has the highest 5G availability with 91% and 95% availability in the two it fell short.
T-Mobile's plans all come with access to 5G, making them some of the best cell phone plans you can get. T-Mobile's leadership in 5G coverage has also allowed the carrier to expand into new services such as home internet connections. Its mobile plans and home internet service have helped T-Mobile to become the clear 5G leader whether you're in an urban, suburban, or rural area.
100GB of premium data with 5G access
All T-Mobile plans come with access to 5G, but Magenta stands out as a great balance with 100GB of premium data and free Netflix.
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When Samuel is not writing about networking or 5G at Android Central, he spends most of his time researching computer components and obsessing over what CPU goes into the ultimate Windows 98 computer. It's the Pentium 3.