T-Mobile's Pre-Launch 5G Network Results Are Encouraging

From PC Mag: T-Mobile is dense in the best way. Its upcoming 5G network in New York will take advantage of its unusually dense, existing network in Midtown to boost speeds over continuous stretches in a way Verizon hasn't been able to do yet in Chicago. That doesn't mean you should sign up now, though.

T-Mobile's 5G network hasn't launched yet, but in true UnCarrier style, if you can ninja your way onto it, they'll let you. Last week, Ookla Technical Evangelist Milan Milanovic tested it in Midtown Manhattan with a Verizon-model Galaxy S10 5G, so I had to try a similar trick.

I need to note that T-Mobile has not launched this network, it hasn't been optimized, it was being used with a phone not designed for T-Mobile, and the carrier didn't want me to do this. Results will be better when T-Mobile actually launches the network.

That said, wow. I found 5G between 42nd and 46th Streets along 3rd Avenue in midtown Manhattan, getting impressive speeds considering that T-Mobile currently only has 100MHz of 5G deployed. That means theoretical speeds would go up to 625Mbps, but no higher. Testing from 111 to 336 feet from a cell site, I got pretty consistent speeds from 350-490Mbps, with 475Mbps at the nearest point and 493Mbps at the farthest.

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