US telecom operators Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T want to grab the attention of 5G mobile aspirants even before the finalization of the standards, chipsets and equipments for roll outs.
The US telecom market is already becoming the hot spot for 5G news. Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T are trying to create their own 5G business models and convince wireless users. 5G is expected to come to the hands of mobile users and industry users by 2020 and beyond.
T-Mobile said it became the first US wireless company to announce plans for “truly nationwide 5G”. T-Mobile will use a portion of its $8 billion low-band 600 MHz spectrum to deliver 5G coverage from coast to coast. T-Mobile will also use the same spectrum for LTE. But T-Mobile will launch 5G in 2019 only — two years from now.
Verizon earlier said it did not bid for the low-band spectrum in order to “focus on 5G mobile in the future.”
Verizon has spectrum holdings in the 700, 850, 1900 megahertz (MHz)/PCS, AWS 1 and 3 spectrum bands.
Verizon 5G
Verizon Wireless chief network officer Nicola Palmer in a blog post said the future use of 600 MHz spectrum is only good in the U.S. and not globally. Global telecom industry will take some time to figure out and deploy widely, especially in busy urban locations.
Verizon says it has the largest LTE Advanced footprint on 700 MHz spectrum for seven years. It is using AWS 3 spectrum to augment AWS 1 assets. “We continue to refarm our spectrum – moving the use of airwaves to our 4G LTE network from our 3G network where usage has significantly decreased according to plan,” Nicola Palmer said.
Verizon said it has access to 28 GHz and 39 GHz spectrum for 5G. The fiber deals with XO and Corning transactions are enhancing Verizon’s current and future networks.
T-Mobile 5G
“5G will be amazing, and we can’t even imagine all the cool stuff it will bring, just like with our earlier network innovations,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile.
John Legere said the carriers are using 5G to either distract from how badly they’re losing today or to give their shareholders some hope they can compete with Big Cable. “Their ambitious vision for fixed 5G to replace home internet will never provide mobile 5G coverage,” John Legere said.
T-Mobile will leverage multiple spectrum bands to deliver 5G coverage. T-Mobile said AT&T and Verizon are approaching 5G much like a series of hotspots in select cities. 5G coverage of T-Mobile said AT&T will disappear once customers step outside of these limited 5G zones.
“There’s no such thing as 5G spectrum, and we’ll see everything moving to 5G in the next decade,” said Neville Ray, T-Mobile CTO. “Mobile 5G will require both high-band and low-band coverage.”
T-Mobile 5G will enable high bandwidth and massive throughput in urban areas using a combination of mid-band and millimeter wave spectrum.
T-Mobile’s 600 MHz 5G network will deliver radio efficiency, support for connected devices, lower latency and improved battery life and reliability.
T-Mobile expects to deploy 5G in its low-band 600 MHz spectrum across its existing macro network, in contrast with the carriers’ millimeter wave spectrum plans, which would require a number of small cells.
Ericsson and Nokia support T-Mobile 5G
“The 600 MHz spectrum will allow 5G to be deployed nationwide, bringing the ultimate experiences to T-Mobile’s enterprise customers and consumers throughout the United States,” said Borje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson. “We will support T-Mobile US with 5G radio development for this spectrum.”
“With its future network plans to pursue Mobile 5G on 600MHz, we stand ready to take
T-Mobile into the next decade,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia.
T-Mobile will drive 3GPP certification for 5G in 600 MHz. As 5G standards are defined, chipsets are delivered, and equipment comes to market, T-Mobile will deploy 5G nationwide in a large swath of unused spectrum. 5G rollout is expected to begin in 2019 with a target of 2020 for full nationwide coverage.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
