Despite being able to expand its 5G network throughout the US, it appears that there are some users who are unable to see the fast speeds promised by T-Mobile. This comes from a report that suggests T-Mo’s 5G download speeds only compose of a small fraction of what the carrier has publicly promised.
At the recently conducted Citi 2021 Global TMT West Conference, T-Mobile’s President of Technology Neville Ray spoke to the public about their 2020 efforts to expand 5G. The CEO said that their network is now able to cover over 1.6 million square miles and 280 million users. Ray also said that their 5G download speeds are nearing 300Mb/s, which is a significant bump from the 40Mb/s provided by their 4G LTE network.
But as evidenced on speed tests ran by SDXCentral, it appears that these numbers aren’t close to what the T-Mo executive mentioned. Using an iPhone 12, a speed test was conducted in Long Beach, California. This speed test resulted in a meager 0.85Mb/s. The same device ran a speed test using T-Mobile’s 4G network, which yielded 47Mb/s. Another report shared that they were able to record 39.4Mb/s under T-Mobile’s 5G network too.
This is a far cry from the numbers promised by Ray. But as T-Mobile continues to rollout its 5G network, it’s possible that its download speeds can also improve over time.