Some of the perks of the newly minted T-Mobile Sprint merger are starting to come to fruition. The two carriers became one company in early April and T-Mobile is now using Sprint spectrum in order to flesh out its 5G expansion with faster speeds.
T-Mobile announced Tuesday that it has launched 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum in parts of Philadelphia and will soon be launching the spectrum in parts of New York City. Mid-band 5G has been used most by Sprint but will allow T-Mobile to improve speeds on its already developed 5G network, which is comprised mostly of low-band spectrum. The carrier noted that once the 2.5GHz is deployed in NYC it will be the first city supporting the three types of 5G, low-band, mid-band, and mmWave.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile continues to introduce its low-band 5G to new markets in the U.S., including Detroit, St. Louis, and Columbus, Ohio.
With the two carriers now connected, T-Mobile has also announced that Sprint customers will have access to their “nationwide 5G” network if they own a Samsung Galaxy S 20 5G smartphone. Though the hardware support remains limited, this gives Sprint customers wider access to 5G overall. T-Mobile is also now allowing Sprint customers to roam on its LTE network, which greatly expands Sprint’s LTE coverage.