If you're a mobile tech enthusiast who likes to keep track of all of the industry's newest developments, breakthroughs, and well, controversies, you probably already know that not all 5G networks are created equal.
That's especially true in the US, where the nation's top three wireless service providers adopted three materially different rollout strategies back at the dawn of this new cellular era, delivering wildly dissimilar experiences for millions of users across both major cities and remote rural areas.
But while T-Mobile and Verizon very clearly chose their areas of focus, at least at first, AT&T's initial 5G play was not... particularly focused, relying on low-band and mmWave technology with no chance of claiming market supremacy in either field.
After Magenta arguably showed the competition the best way to build a 5G network "right", Big Red and Ma Bell had to spend many billions of dollars to beef up their essentially non-existent mid-band properties, and now the latter operator is providing an important update on its upcoming attempt at catching up to America's (uncrowned) 5G king.
Get ready for a huge 5G+ expansion
Remember when AT&T pulled that universally reviled 5GE stunt, labeling what others were (correctly) calling 4G LTE Advanced (or simply LTE-A) as "5G Evolution" to lead people into thinking the competition was behind on true 5G service deployment?
This latest coverage map depicts the availability of AT&T's low-band 5G service
5G+ is... not quite as egregious a branding trick as that, but after today's announcement, T-Mobile may have grounds to launch another one of its infamous publicity attacks on AT&T. That's because Ma Bell's C-Band signal will soon be added to a 5G+ network that currently uses exclusively high-band mmWave spectrum.
AT&T will therefore expand a blazing fast network that merely covers "parts of 39 cities and more than 20 venues and entertainment districts" right now to reach anywhere between 70 and 75 million people (in theory) by "the end of next year" and "up to 200 million in 2023."
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While obviously impressive, those achievements might be diminished (a little) by the fact that customers won't be able to tell when they're connected to a mmWave 5G signal as opposed to C-Band technology. In both cases, you'll see an indicator simply showing the "5G+ symbol", with "5G" instead signifying a 4G LTE-like low-band connection already available for "more than" 250 million people "nationwide."
T-Mobile's Ultra Capacity 5G will continue to reign supreme
In case you're wondering, AT&T's 5G marketing strategy is slightly different from that of T-Mobile, which currently uses the "Ultra Capacity" label to exclusively describe its mid-band 5G network while calling its nationwide low-band 5G signal by the "Extended Range" name, at least in press releases and other communications of that sort.
Keep in mind that the "Un-carrier" is not a complete stranger to mmWave 5G launches, but we actually haven't had one of those in a long time, and for the most part, T-Mo is simply not advertising that part of its "layer cake" rather than using a third marketing moniker.
That being said, Magenta is pulling a similar stunt to AT&T with the 5G UC icon on iPhones running the latest iOS version. For the time being, the "Un-carrier's" iPhone users are not able to immediately distinguish between a mid and high-band 5G connection, which further adds to the general confusion surrounding these groundbreaking but radically different technologies.
Meanwhile, Verizon is taking a pretty much identical approach to AT&T, preparing to conflate its own C-Band and mmWave resources under the 5G Ultra Wideband umbrella, with the aptly named "Nationwide 5G" network relying on considerably slower low-band technology.
Speaking of speeds, we should probably point out that AT&T and Verizon's C-Band spectrum technically falls into the upper mid-band category at anywhere between 3.7 and 3.98 GHz frequencies, which means those download numbers will likely surpass what you can normally squeeze out of T-Mobile's 2.5 GHz mid-band 5G network.
But that will undoubtedly come at the expense of long-distance signal penetration, which explains why T-Mo expects to cover no less than 200 million people as early as the end of 2021 with Ultra Capacity 5G. Said UC network is also plenty fast for most users right now, delivering average figures of 350 Mbps for 186 million people across the US already and continuously getting better.
Otherwise put, AT&T remains "destined for third place in a three-horse race for network superiority", according to industry analysts, despite setting a very aggressive December 2021 launch goal for its C-Band 5G signal today.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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