T-Mobile has made a lot of noise in recent months about its 5G network expansion efforts and especially the integration of Sprint's mid-band spectrum on top of its existing low-band infrastructure, but while there's no denying Magenta's plans look significantly better on paper than Verizon and AT&T's scattered strategies, the reality is things haven't evolved at the most impressive pace lately.
That's at least according to a new Fierce Wireless report quoting the latest financial statement of American Tower, a real estate investment trust that had hoped to see "higher levels of new business" from the nation's third-largest wireless service provider after the long overdue completion of its Sprint acquisition.
Apparently, that was simply not the case during the year's second quarter, as T-Mo is still "working through all their plans", gradually redeploying Sprint's mid-band spectrum to vastly improve its overall underwhelming 5G speeds in places like Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.
The expectations were much higher from "New T-Mobile", which vowed to make its low-band 5G signal accessible to 97 percent of the American population, as well as cover 75 percent of the nation with faster mid-band technology, within three years of the aforementioned merger's close in trying to get the deal across the finish line.
While Magenta has repeatedly touted its 5G network availability as "nationwide", those two goals remain a fairly distant dream. Then again, there's no reason to believe the fulfilling of said dream will be delayed or canceled altogether, which is why American Tower predicts T-Mobile's 5G rollouts, expansions, and upgrades are likely to accelerate during the second half of the year.
The mobile network operator sure has an "awful lot of work to do", but at the same time, its track record suggests "accomplishing a great deal of network-related work quickly and efficiently" is not as difficult of a task as it sounds.
Bottom line, you should expect the "Un-carrier's" low and mid-band 5G signals to spread to a lot of new places by the end of the year. Meanwhile, American Tower is also hopeful that Dish will deliver on its promises to "enter" the wireless "picture" in earnest "toward the end of this year and into 2021", but plenty of question marks are still hovering over the 5G buildout and rollout plans of the nation's new number four carrier.
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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