Home › News ›

Sprint to Launch 5G In 2019 Using 2.5 GHz Spectrum

Dec 21, 2017, 8:10 AM by Eric M. Zeman

Sprint today voiced its support of the recently ratified NSA 5G NR specification and revealed its own plans for deploying 5G. The specification for NSA 5G NR includes support for up to 100 MHz on a single carrier (in the 2.5 GHz band) versus today's limit of 20 MHz per carrier. Sprint holds a massive 160 MHz slice of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the top 100 markets around the U.S., which will allow Sprint to offer mid-band 5G to many Americans. The company is working with Qualcomm and SoftBank to bring 5G services and devices to market by late 2019. Sprint says it will first use Massive MIMO as a stepping stone to 5G. It will launch Massive MIMO in its 2.5 GHz spectrum in 2018. These radios contain 64 transmitters and 64 receivers each, which allow for incredibly accurate beam-forming. These radios will be software-upgradeable to 5G NR. Sprint did not say anything about plans to support mmWave-based 5G in high-band spectrum. "This is an important milestone and we’re making great progress accelerating the development and commercialization of 5G NR in the 2.5 GHz band," said Dr. John Saw, Sprint CTO. "5G will spur dramatic innovation and progress around the world, and we see great opportunity in mobile 5G, massive machine type communications, and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications." AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all have similar plans and timeframes for bringing 5G to market.

Dec 1, 2021
T-Mobile recently announced that its mid-band 5G network now covers over 200 million people, a threshold that the industry acknowledges as "nationwide" coverage. (Mid-band 5G offers an ideal balance of fast data speeds and broad coverage compared to 5G in other bands.) In an interview with Phone Scoop, T-Mobile executives detailed how they plan to maintain the company's lead in mid-band 5G even as Verizon and AT&T launch mid-band 5G early next year.

Verizon Details C-Band 5G Launch Plans, Promises 10x Data Speed

Jan 4, 2022
Verizon has formally announced plans to launch 5G in the new "C-band" mid-band radio frequencies later his month, and filled in details of what the launch will include. The company is promising to cover 100 million people — nearly 1/3 of the population — with the new network at launch.

Verizon Tweaks Plans, Adding True Unlimited + More Hotspot Data

Jan 5, 2022
Verizon has made a handful of changes to its unlimited plans, giving some customers a better value. The basic structure and pricing remain unchanged, but some plans now come with more data.

FCC Raises Over $22 Billion in Latest Mid-Band 5G Auction

Jan 7, 2022
The FCC's Auction 110 has concluded, with up to 33 bidders paying a total of $22.5 billion for 4,041 licenses out of 4,060 offered. All of the top three national wireless carriers participated in the auction.

AT&T, Dish Big Winners in FCC's Latest Mid-Band Auction

Jan 14, 2022
The US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) just announced the winners of its auction 110, for prime new mid-band radio spectrum ideal for 5G. AT&T and Dish spent the most, each splurging for enough licenses to cover the entire continental US.

more news about:

Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

JJinNYC

Dec 21, 2017, 3:42 PM

LOL

5G in 2019? Yea ok. They don't even have VoLTE yet

brad162

They could do 5G.. The VoLTE is just because they do not have an IMS core for voice calls, has nothing to do with data.

...

aeternavi

Dec 22, 2017, 4:51 PM

Prediction: complete flop

This 2.5GHz spectrum is what's left over from the days of "4G" WiMAX. Back then the problem was it offered HORRIBLE indoor coverage due to the high frequency. They really need to ditch that and realize why no other carriers are going to be doing their own on that high of band.

PhoneMaster

Dec 22, 2017, 7:29 AM

5G on Sprint

The problem with this of course is the feeble building penetration of 2.5Ghz signals. Especially since the 5G signal will probably be less robust than 4G (same way that 3G was more fragile than 2G and 4G was more fragile than 3G).

Page 1 of 1