Key Takeaways
- T-Mobile is rolling out an upgraded 5G network by the end of 2024 for faster speeds and better stability.
- A new technology called L4S is being deployed to improve connectivity and reduce buffering during video streaming.
- The end product of these efforts will be T-Mobile’s new “5G Advanced” network, and while existing 5G phones are supported, you’ll need one with high max download speeds to take full advantage of it.
Unless you haven’t upgraded in multiple generations, your phone probably connects to a 5G network. More than 90 percent of people in the United States are in range of 5G low-band, while somewhere between 210 and 300 million people are served by 5G mid-band. The fastest form of 5G — the one that typically comes to mind when you think of the connection — is really only available in major metropolitan areas. T-Mobile is getting ready to add another tier of 5G to its network that will improve speeds, energy efficiency, and connection stability, and better yet? The company plans to start rolling it out by the end of 2024.
T-Mobile’s President of Technology, Ulf Ewaldsson, told Fierce Network the rollout would arrive via a software network update and provide “improved spectral efficiency” and “enhanced positioning.” While those might sound like traits a ghost could benefit from, it really means your phone will be able to better connect to 5G networks and utilize the speeds available to them. The company is able to do this because its original 5G network was a standalone (SA) network, rather than one running on a radio access network with a 4G LTE core. The result is a network that’s capable of speeds up to ten times faster than what 5G delivers.
There’s a lot more than jargon here
Okay, take a breath — the worst of the technical jargon is done. What does this upgrade mean for you? Ewaldsson said a new technology known as L4S is coming into play. L4S stands for Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable throughput. In other words, it allows a device to use greater bandwidth depending on its current activity. In this particular use case, T-Mobile plans to deploy L4S to video streaming and reduce the amount of buffering or resolution loss that occurs when on an unstable network.
This isn’t the first time this is being introduced, though. The Oppo Find X7 in China already supports 5G Advanced, but T-Mobile’s rollout is the first of its kind in the United States. It will also likely herald a wave of phone manufacturers advertising their devices as 5G Advanced- or 5.5G-compatible. There’s just one small catch: you might need a new phone to take full advantage of it. The onboard modem in your phone needs to be able to support the speed, but the majority of Qualcomm’s recent modems already have that support built in.
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