T-Mobile announced during a press conference that they plan on expanding their 700 MHz spectrum by nearly 250% over the course of 2016. The news is great for T-Mobile users and Project Fi users (which leverages T-Mobile) as it should give them more LTE coverage in more remote places and better coverage in urban areas. For T-Mobile, this spectrum is their LTE Band 12 and the lower frequency allows for LTE coverage in buildings and remote areas.
In the conference, T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer, Neville Ray stated that just over 300 million of the companies Points of Presence (POP) out of the 700 million will be licensed for the 700 MHz in the coming year, greatly expanding the company’s LTE cover in the United States. If you remember, T-Mobile acquired the spectrum back in 2014 and have been slowly expanding it since then. Currently there are 185 million POPs in T-Mobile’s inventory that support this spectrum.
There were no specifics given on dates and which markets would be expanded with the spectrum other than it being this year. Generally too, carriers don’t publish when or were new spectrum was added – it just kind of happens.
T-Mobile Carrier LTE Information via Signal Spy
As one who uses Project Fi, I can say that the 700 Mhz spectrum is quite nice to have available. Here in my hometown, Denver, Colorado, the spectrum is generally available cross the city and when I’m in a building, I still have LTE coverage where in the past on AT&T I did not. That is the beauty of this lower frequency as it can penetrate buildings and further out in rural areas than others.
Soure: Android Headlines
