Letter to the editor: I agree that T-Mobile has the best 5G coverage

 

Dear Monica,

 

I agree that T-Mobile has the best 5G coverage. Part of the reason this happened is the result of the order in which T-Mobile received the spectrum they use for 5G. The first 600 MHz spectrum became available in rural areas with fewer television stations to relocate to different channels. Unlike typical buildouts, T-Mobile installed 600 MHz base stations in rural areas with cleared spectrum first and they skipped earlier standards and went with 5G New Radio from the start. During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, T-Mobile had permission to rent 600 MHz spectrum from other license holders to use wide channels in all markets.

 

In parallel, the large amount of Sprint EBS/BRS spectrum allowed T-Mobile to start building a large capacity 5G network without waiting on clearing C Band spectrum.

 

Verizon's reputation for best coverage was built on two major purchases. They purchased the rural cellular carrier Alltel starting in 2008 and they won a nationwide license for 700 MHz upper C block, also in 2008. This gave Verizon a chance to build a nationwide 4G LTE network with excellent coverage and building penetration while also having lots of original 850 MHz cellular spectrum for their CDMA voice network.

 

In my opinion, CDMA with single frequency networks and soft handoffs gave Verizon an early advantage over AT&T and T-Mobile with GSM networks that have hard handoffs that are more prone to dropped calls. With a soft handoff, the phone can receive signals from both the current base station and the next one simultaneously, making it less likely that calls gets dropped.