T-Mobile customers with 4G-only and early 5G phones will soon need to upgrade [UPDATED]

T-Mobile may wind down its 4G network earlier than expected, making LTE-only devices obsolete. The move won't just affect 4G devices but also those that only support 5G Non-Standalone (5G NSA).

T-Mobile's 4G network will mostly be gone by 2028

It was only in February this year that T-Mobile shut down its 2G network. The second-generation cellular technology was introduced in 1991 and outlived 3G because many IoT devices and legacy industrial applications relied on it.

T-Mobile has already started planning the dismantling of its 4G network, per The Mobile Report. Shutting down old networks allows carriers to put resources and spectrum toward the latest technology. Spectrum licenses are valuable resources that give carriers rights to slices of radio frequencies, which they use to transmit signals.

That's what will be happening with this phase-out as well, with T-Mobile noting in the alleged document that LTE spectrum will be reallocated over the next two years to support 5G Standalone (5G SA). 5G SA is the true version of 5G and it doesn't lean on 4G infrastructure.

T-Mobile primarily focuses on 600 MHz n71 (low-band 5G) and 2500 MHz n41 (mid-band 5G) frequencies. On its older 4G network, T-Mobile uses 2, 4/66, 12, and some 71 frequencies. The retirement of 4G will allow T-Mobile to transition Band 2 to 5G NR Band n2 and Band 4/66 to n66.

By 2028, 4G will mostly fade into history, except for a single 5 MHz LTE channel limping along, significantly affecting capacity and coverage. This is expected to impact LTE and 5G NSA devices.

LTE will continue to exist in a limited capacity until 2035 to support legacy devices, but performance will degrade substantially.

The transition will begin with business customers on January 1, 2026, which is when T-Mobile will stop approving most LTE and 5G NSA activations. Existing LTE contracts won't be renewed or extended beyond 2035.

The first 5G phone was released in 2019, and most handsets sold today are 5G-capable. That's why this move will probably not negatively affect most users. T-Mobile may also offer free compatible devices to those rocking 4G or 5G NSA phones, as it did when it announced the 2G kill-off.

Every hertz tied up in 4G could instead be used to make 5G faster

There was no indication that carriers would be pulling the plug on 4G networks this soon, especially because 5G could work in conjunction with 4G. That said, unlike AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile didn't use legacy 4G assets to deploy 5G, which might explain why it's the first one to let go.

Other carriers' 5G networks were built upon LTE technology, so their 4G shutdown may take longer.

While the decommissioning of T-Mobile's LTE network may be an inconvenience for some customers initially, eventually 5G coverage and speeds will improve as 4G spectrum is repurposed. New network technologies offer better encryption and energy efficiency, so it's a promising sign that T-Mobile will be moving away from LTE over the next two years.

T-Mobile and other carriers have also activated 5G RedCap for smartwatches and other small devices, which is another reason they no longer need to keep legacy LTE modules around.

4G and 5G use very similar underlying technology, which will make it easier for T-Mobile to reuse 4G hardware and spectrum for 5G without disrupting service.

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