T-Mobile has made it a priority to increase its meager share of the enterprise market, and toward that end, today it announced its Advanced Network Solutions (ANS), a suite of public and private networking solutions with help from vendors Dell Technologies, Ericsson and Nokia.
According to T-Mobile, the solutions are for enterprises and government organizations of all shapes and sizes. Some customers already are using ANS, including the global racing league SailGP, which reportedly was able to reduce latency by up to 50% compared to Wi-Fi and CBRS spectrum, giving coaches, athletes and fans real-time analytics from boats traveling at 60 mph.
T-Mobile is using Ericsson’s RAN and core equipment to power its 5G ANS. Nokia is providing its expertise in 5G private and hybrid mobile networks. Dell is delivering edge computing technologies, including the Dell VxRail hyperconverged infrastructure, so data can be processed, stored and acted upon locally at locations like large business campuses, factories or universities.
According to T-Mobile, enterprise 5G solutions thus far have been limited to costly, one-size-fits-all 5G private networks. But T-Mobile intends to change all of that with three 5G advanced network options.
- The T-Mobile Public Network is for customers who need more reliability and faster download speeds than legacy networks provide. They can use this for everything from smart meter applications to tracking optimization. T-Mobile said its public network is architected so that data travels less distance from the device to the compute resource and back, which is a big reason T-Mobile 5G is faster with lower latency.
- The Hybrid Mobile Network is for customers who need even faster speeds, lower latency and/or dedicated reliability. This is targeted at things like immersive VR training, computer vision and inspections and other demanding applications.
- The Private Mobile Network is designed for customers who need the highest speeds, reliability and ultra-low latency. Examples are industrial automation in a factory or fully autonomous robots.
SailGP deployment
To show off its 5G capabilities, T-Mobile showcased a recent event with SailGP. T-Mobile said these superfast boats are also massive IoT devices capturing 240,000 data points per second. All of the data travels, via a T-Mobile 5G Hybrid Network solution, back to SailGP’s compute platform to be processed and then back to the remote race control center.
“Seamlessly transferring 240k data points traveling at 60mph over the open water is the ultimate test of any network solution,” the “un-carrier" said. “This superfast data transfer helped coaches and athletes make better decisions while racing at highway-like speeds. It also brought fans closer to the action, giving them an unmatched viewing experience.”
As the exclusive U.S. 5G partner of SailGP, T-Mobile will deploy new Hybrid 5G Mobile Networks in iconic racing locations, including during next month’s United States Sail Grand Prix at Chicago’s Navy Pier.
T-Mobile noted that it launched the first nationwide standalone (SA) 5G network in 2020; testing showed 40% improvements in latency.
The company also pointed out that it’s using a combination of low-band, mid-band and millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum. Taking a dig at rival Verizon, which uses mmWave in venues across the country, T-Mobile said that while mmWave can be great for private networks in one location, it’s not the best solution at a theme park, for example, where it’s unable to connect through rides or trees, which is where mid-band comes in.