From CNET: T-Mobile users around the country may soon see some improvements to their service. The carrier on Wednesday announced that it finally has access to additional midband spectrum, with T-Mobile's President of Technology Ulf Ewaldsson telling CNET that the airwaves will provide a boost to service for nearly 60 million people in the "coming days" and over 80 million people overall as it builds additional towers.
The spectrum, which is the 2.5GHz frequency that is the core to much of T-Mobile's faster 5G "Ultra Capacity" offering, was purchased by the carrier for $304 million in a government auction in 2022. Regulatory hurdles around the Federal Communications Commission's auction jurisdiction prevented the carrier from accessing the spectrum until now, but those issues seem to have finally been resolved.
Ewaldsson says that the carrier will be doing a software push to its existing towers in the next few days to add the extra capacity for roughly 60 million people. Getting to that 80 million number will require the carrier to build additional cell towers and will take some time. No timeframe was given for when those new towers will be built.
"For all the towers that we have that can carry 2.5 (GHz), we're just reprogramming them now," he says, adding that this is why "the 60 (million) is so easy for us to do."
View: Full Article
