One week after T-Mobile flipped the switch on its 2.5GHz-based 5G in New York City, T-Mobile President of Technology Neville Ray has talked a bit on how quicly T-Mo will be deploying 2.5GHz 5G to other parts of the country.

Speaking during the MoffettNathanson 7th Annual Media & Communications Summit, Ray said that the 2.5GHz 5G will be rolled out at a “furious pace”. He added that he thinks the speed of the deployment will surprise the competition who may think it’ll take T-Mobile 2 to 3 years.

This speed will enable T-Mobile to roll out its 2.5GHz 5G across thousands of sites this year, Ray teased. He expects that T-Mo will be building out this 2.5GHz 5G at a rate of almost 1,000 overlays per month as we move into May and June, adding that a lot of major metro areas will be lit up with 2.5GHz this year.

Ray touched a bit how T-Mobile prepared for its 2.5GHz rollout, too. He said that last year, T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter gave him the go-ahead to begin getting leasing and permitting to roll out 2.5GHz on existing sites ahead of the merger’s completion, which could help get the 2.5GHz 5G deployed more quickly.

And of course, Ray couldn’t talk about T-Mobile’s 5G coverage without taking a shot at one of his competitors. The T-Mo exec said that the 2.5GHz 5G coverage that was launched in Philadelphia last month is 2.5 times larger than Verizon’s entire mmWave footprint to date.

Lastly, Neville Ray dropped some info on T-Mobile LTE and Sprint roaming. He said that an average of 10 million Sprint customers per week are taking advantage of their ability to roam on T-Mobile’s LTE network.

Via: FierceWireless
Source: T-Mobile