T-Mobile turns on 5G service in Asheville, Black Mountain, Canton, Barker Heights and Sylva

Press release from T-Mobile:

T-Mobile is marking another big step in its nationwide 5G rollout, expanding the next-generation wireless technology in the suburbs and exurbs across North Carolina.

Two momentous breakthroughs bring this latest network expansion. In April, T-Mobile completed its merger with fellow national wireless provider, Sprint. The combination of the two companies’ network assets, called spectrum, is the envy of the wireless industry. It’s like combining superhero powers. Unbeatable.

Secondly, T-Mobile recently completed a world’s first, the launch of a commercial nationwide standalone architecture (SA) 5G network. Technical? Yes. Impactful? Also, yes. Standalone architecture is a critical building block for the continued development of 5G and helps expand T-Mobile’s footprint – already the nation’s largest – to nearly 2,000 additional cities and towns including the following in Western North Carolina:

Buncombe County

·         Asheville

·         Black Mountain

Haywood County

·         Canton

Henderson County

·         Barker Heights

Jackson County

·         Sylva

The very heart of wireless service is based on spectrum — invisible highways in the air that transport voice and data from a phone to a cell site. The initial nationwide 5G rollout from T-Mobile, and the local network in these respective cities and towns, is based on the operator’s 600 MHz spectrum, also referred to as low-band. It provides the foundational layer for T-Mobile’s 5G network.  Download speeds on T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G are already 2x times faster than our LTE on average and that experience will improve exponentially over time, just like with 4G.

T-Mobile is now also aggressively rolling out what’s referred to as mid-band spectrum, acquired as part of the Sprint merger.  Mid-band spectrum is the ideal spectrum band, the goldilocks of spectrum bands if you will, for the 5G era: compared to low-band spectrum, it allows lots of data to travel at faster speeds over relatively far distances.

The stakes are high for the U.S. as billions in economic growth and jobs are expected to come from 5G and the innovations it will unleash. In the coming months and years, T-Mobile will build upon the foundational nationwide 5G layer it’s rolled out since December. T-Mobile will not only continue to deploy the mid-band spectrum acquired as part of the Sprint merger but also high-band spectrum that will add capacity — or more “lanes” using the invisible highway analogy — for mind-blowing speeds. This combination of spectrum assets will deliver a 5G network with both breadth and depth, something Verizon and AT&T simply cannot do as quickly.

For more information on T-Mobile’s 5G service, visit t-mobile.com/coverage or check out T-Mobile’s zoomable 5G coverage map. For more information on T-Mobile’s latest 5G devices, head to t-mobile.com/cell-phones/network/5g.