The 5G battle is raging as the competitors are taking shots at one another in the wireless sector. To date, T-Mobile has branded itself as the un-carrier, against rivals AT&T and Verizon. It became even more evident as T-Mobile and Verizon engaged in an odd battle on Thursday.
The president of technology for T-Mobile, Nevil Ray says, Verizon’s claim of 5G “Built Right” is the height of irony
After Verizon CEO, Hans Vestberg tweeted to expect news on Thursday at 9 ET, T-Mobile emailed reporters at 8:33 a.m. ET. It anticipated that Vestberg was teasing about the launch of Verizon’s nationwide 5G network. T-Mobile’s email was reportedly a pre-emptive strike against Verizon.
The nation’s largest carrier relies on dynamic spectrum sharing technology
Verizon is banking on a technology known as dynamic spectrum sharing to use its existing 4G LTE airwaves for both 4G and 5G. This allows the nation’s largest carrier to begin deployment of a wide 5G network, as it waits to free up some of its existing spectrum holdings or acquire more through other avenues like Federal Communications Commission auctions.
This nationwide 5G network would be widely available than the limited part of 36 cities where its current 5G network exists. This low band network will allow Verizon to offer 5G across the country, including indoors.
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T-Mobile and AT&T already have a nationwide low band 5G network, with T-Mobile launching it first last December. It covered an expansion of 250 million people over the summer. T-Mobile’s mid-band 5G footprint includes 81 cities and towns. Its 5G service offers a download speed of 300 megabits with peaks of 1 gigabit per second.
T-Mobile “false alarm” email after CEO Vestberg confirms to be the keynote speaker for 2021 CES
Verizon has said that its nationwide 5G network will be launched in the second half of 2020, but Thursday’s announcement was not about this launch. Instead, it communicated that CEO Vestberg will be the keynote speaker for 2021 CES in January.
Later, T-Mobile sent out a follow-up email saying that it was sorry for the “false alarm”. It further added that although they have actual 5G news to share, they would talk about 5G in January. Verizon however responded that it will not be waiting until January.
T-Mobile has yet to come back with a suitable response but if this kind of back and forth response continues, it would be interesting to watch the rest of the year when Verizon finally launches its nationwide 5G network.