T-Mobile recently flipped the switch on its 2.5GHz 5G in New York City, and it looks like the new spectrum is always paying off in a big way for T-Mo.
Speed tests have shown that T-Mobile’s 5G network in NYC is breaking the 1 gigabit barrier using 2.5GHz. T-Mobile’s Salim Kouidri posted a speed test screenshot that shows a download speed of 1,027Mbps that was achieved in Manhattan.
A big milestone was achieved today @TMobile NYC. The team recorded a 1 Gigabit/s speed test on our newly launched 2.5Ghz 5G network in Manhattan @NevilleRay @MikeSievert #layercake #nationwide5G #wewontstop pic.twitter.com/XSir6YRSrp
— Salim Kouidri (@salimkouidri) May 20, 2020
Kouidri shed a bit more light on that particular speed test to Light Reading, saying that it combined transmissions from multiple bands. Those include N41, the 2.5GHz spectrum T-Mobile got from Sprint as well as B66 and band 46. That means this 1Gbps connection didn’t use the low-band or high-band mmWave spectrum that T-Mobile is also using for 5G.
T-Mobile also revealed that it’s initially only deploying 60MHz of the 150MHz it owns in the 2.5GHz spectrum band.
Meanwhile, Milan Milanović of Ookla took T-Mobile’s 5G network in NYC for a spin, too, and shared a speed test where he achieved a download speed of 1,203Mbps. Another screenshot from Milanovic shows several other 5G speeds tests that’ve also broken the 1Gbps threshold.
Well that was unexpected… Just two weeks after the 2.5GHz NYC launch, @TMobile upgrades the NR bandwidth from 40 to 60MHz!
NR spectral efficiency further improves… 1.2Gbps. pic.twitter.com/wDZBB6Ml4X— Milan Milanović (@milanmilanovic) May 19, 2020
Those speeds are pretty impressive, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind about them right now. First off is that there probably aren’t quite as many people using that network right now as there would be normally because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and many people quarantining at home and using Wi-Fi.
Second is that 2.5GHz is still limited to just Philadelphia and New York City. Obviously T-Mobile will bring 2.5GHz to more cities in the future, but it hasn’t said exactly when or where we’ll see 2.5GHz launch next. So for now most of us will just have to sit by and be jealous of the super-fast speeds that are being shown off in speed tests like the ones shown above.
Sources: Light Reading, Salim Kouidri, Milan Milanović