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T-Mobile makes good on plan to cover 200 million people with its mid-band and mmWave 5G

T-Mobile has been moving quickly to build out its mid and high-band 5G coverage across the US and the uncarrier has shared an update on that work today. Coming a month and a half earlier than its self-imposed goal, T-Mobile says its “Ultra Capacity 5G” now “reaches 200 million people nationwide.”

We’ve seen multiple independent reports this year that show T-Mobile leading Verizon and AT&T when it comes to performance like 5G availability and average download/upload speeds.

Now T-Mobile has officially shared the results of its 2021 efforts to cover 200 million Americans with fast 5G in a press release (via The Verge):

T-Mobile today announced it now covers 200 million people with Ultra Capacity 5G … reaching the milestone weeks ahead of schedule and years ahead of the competition! That’s the super-fast, fast-as-home-wifi-speed-with-your-phone 5G that ONLY T-Mobile can deliver to most Americans today with 80% of the Un-carrier’s customers now covered. This is all on top of T-Mobile’s Extended Range 5G, which covers 308 million people across 1.7 million square miles. The combination has earned T-Mobile the crown of America’s 5G leader, with the largest, fastest, and most reliable 5G network.

To clarify, T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G is made up of the mid-band that it’s been rapidly expanding plus its high-band mmWave 5G. And the uncarrier highlighted that it’s been this focus on the mid-band along with mmWave that’s seen it surpass its competitors.

The secret to T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G – the 5G that delivers super-fast speeds to a lot of people – is mid-band 2.5 GHz spectrum. When other U.S. operators went all in on millimeter wave (mmWave), T-Mobile executed a multi-band spectrum strategy using low-band Extended Range to blanket the country and Ultra Capacity to bring fast 5G speeds to the maximum number of people – now covering 200 million (100x more people than Verizon’s Ultra Wideband) with plans to reach 300 million people (more than 90% of Americans) in the next two years.

The uncarrier also mentioned that while 2021 brought a lot of progress, it’s been the execution of a 5-year plan that led to today’s 5G coverage. And, according to Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy, “T-Mobile is more than a year ahead of its competition with the deployment of its Ultra Capacity 5G mid-band spectrum and is rolling it out at an unprecedented pace.”

You can check out T-Mobile’s coverage map here. And another slick option for iPhone users is the ability to test-drive T-Mobile for free with your eSIM without giving up your current number or carrier.

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Avatar for Michael Potuck Michael Potuck

Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. Since joining in 2016 he has written more than 3,000 articles including breaking news, reviews, and detailed comparisons and tutorials.