With the acquisition of T-Mobile or Sprint in full swing, it’s time for some big changes.
With a test run in New York, the company has now completely closed down the 5G Network of Sprint across the United States.
T-Mobile‘s $26.5 billion partner of fellow wireless provider, Sprint, which shut down in April.
Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile pulled the plug from the 5G network of Sprint and began moving customers over to the T-Mobile 5G network in July.
It means most of the Sprint 5G phones out in the wild and will no longer see 5G speeds.
The exceptions to this are with the LG V60 Thin Q, Samsung Galaxy S20, and OnePlus 8 which have band support for the 5G network of T-Mobile.
Why is it powered down?
Before Sprint merger with T-Mobile, Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint touted its 5G service as critical to its future.
The 5G network of Sprint, which was rolled out in 13 states before the merger with the company, told on 2.5 GHz spectrum.
The company‘s national 5G network is built on 600 MHz, and it is now also deploying 2.5 GHz spectrum that it acquired from its Sprint transaction.
Via the terms of the Sprint/T-Mobile deal, the “New T-Mobile” had to agree to build a robust, nationwide 5G network.
T-Mobile is in the process of launching 5G home internet commercially nationwide, which the company said will cover more than 50 percent of U.S. households within six years.
However, all Sprint phones (aside from the ones mentioned previously) still won’t work on the network after this change happens.
Instead, the company is offering a series of deals for Sprint customers to trade in their 5G phones for a different model that will work properly on T-Mobile.
Newer devices that feature Qualcomm’s X55 modem, like the Galaxy S20 5G lineup. It will still be able to access the 2.5GHz networks when they relaunch as part of T-Mobile’s setup.
