After successful tests back in May, T-Mobile announced on Tuesday that it has deployed four-carrier aggregation for customers. This boosts speeds on its 5G standalone (SA) network. The carrier says the speeds are “insanely fast,” which according to them, means up to 3.3Gbps! While it is only available in parts of the U.S. now, it will be nationwide in only a few weeks.
5G carrier aggregation allows T-Mobile to combine multiple 5G channels (or carriers) to deliver greater speed and performance. The Un-carrier is using four 5G channels of sub-6 GHz spectrum – two channels of 2.5 GHz Ultra Capacity 5G, one channel of 1900 MHz and one channel of 600 MHz spectrum. They’ve compared it to taking four separate highways and turning them into a massive superhighway.
Customers with the Samsung Galaxy S23 will be the first to experience four-carrier aggregation with more devices to follow. And don’t forget, T-Mobile also provides these customers with VoNR access, which is voice calling over the 5G network. Customers connected to VoNR may notice slightly faster call set-up times, meaning less delay between the time they dial a number and when the phone starts ringing. More importantly though, VoNR enables advanced capabilities like network slicing that rely on a continuous connection to a 5G core.