T-Mobile: New 5G Bands Will Need New Phones

C-Band may be coming to save 5G in America, but it won't be coming to your phone, according to T-Mobile's President of Technology Neville Ray.

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Our Fastest Mobile Networks 2020 results showed that the US approach to 5G is really struggling. With a lack of "mid-band" airwaves, our carriers can't properly cover metro areas with speeds that differ noticeably from 4G. The C-Band, to be auctioned in December for late 2021 usage, might solve that problem. It's 280MHz of mid-band spectrum between 3.7 and 4GHz, just below the common 5GHz Wi-Fi band.

On Twitter recently, I've been speculating with some folks that existing phones, especially those that support the adjacent CBRS or European C-Band networks, might be software-upgradeable to C-Band. Unfortunately, Ray said, that's not the case: US C-Band will require new phones and new infrastructure.

Ray does have one ulterior motive here: to show the superiority of T-Mobile's existing holdings. T-Mobile is sitting on the only viable cache of mid-band 5G spectrum, at 2.5GHz, where it has been slowly ramping up launches. While we didn't see it giving better than 4G speeds during our July tests, when T-Mobile was mostly using 40MHz of that spectrum for 5G, the carrier will get up to 80MHz by the end of this year, he said.

What does this mean for phone buyers? To the glee of manufacturers, and the horror of most consumers, if you want the good 5G on AT&T and Verizon, you are definitely going to have to upgrade your phone in late 2021 or early 2022. Mark your calendars.

I'd say this puts T-Mobile at an advantage, except that T-Mobile wants C-Band too, and so T-Mobile subscribers will also need to upgrade if T-Mobile gets C-Band, deploys it in various cities and you want to access that network.

Strike Up The Bands

This is all a deathmatch because spectrum is life for wireless carriers. You want to know why AT&T's 5G is slower than its 4G? Spectrum. Why does Verizon 5G generally only go two blocks from a panel? Spectrum. The amount of available airwaves each carrier has, and how high-frequency they are, determine the services the carrier can offer. C-Band is prime real estate for both 5G and wireless fixed home internet.

In general, you need 50MHz or larger blocks of spectrum for 5G to not feel like 4G. On AT&T and T-Mobile's low-band networks, they're playing with 5-15MHz blocks. T-Mobile's mid-band network is 40-80MHz for now. Verizon's high-band network is 400-800MHz, but it has serious range problems. That 280MHz of C-Band, if split evenly across the three carriers, would make for some juicy 5G potential. There are other players who want at it, too, such as Dish and the cable companies.

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The three big carriers are currently in a pre-emptive PR war over whether or not T-Mobile will get access to any of that C-Band spectrum, mostly because AT&T and Verizon are so desperate for it. Each of the carriers is currently trying to elbow the FCC into designing the auction to benefit them, which mostly means designing "spectrum screens" to give them discounts or preferential treatment based on the spectrum they do and don't hold. As Light Reading explains, AT&T and Verizon are hoping to get T-Mobile screened out of the C-Band auction because of T-Mobile's 2.5GHz holdings. T-Mobile wants Verizon's millimeter-wave holdings included in the equation, which would make it look like Verizon already has a lot more spectrum than T-Mobile does.

I don't have a lot of pity for any of these companies. None of these three mega-players are a small fry who need support. If T-Mobile drives up the price of C-Band, forcing AT&T and Verizon to spend extra billions to secure their 5G slots, that's billions of dollars going from the telecoms' coffers to the US Treasury. It's an auction. The frequencies aren't going to go unsold or unused.

We'll keep following this on PCMag.com. For now, though, the takeaway is that you're going to need a new phone at the end of next year if you're interested in 5G that makes a difference, especially on Verizon and AT&T.