T-Mobile announced on Monday the activation of its new nationwide 5G mobile network that gives coverage to 200 million Americans.
The carrier said that its new 5G network covers 60% of the US population across 1 million square miles in over 5,000 towns. You can check whether T-Mobile covers your town or area with 5G with the carrier's 5G coverage map. The areas with dark magenta are T-Mobile's 5G coverage zones, and the lighter magenta area are the carrier's 4G LTE coverage zones.
T-Mobile's 5G network is more expansive and inclusive than other carriers' 5G networks so far, which mostly cover certain parts of a handful of cities across the US. The carrier says its 5G network covers 20,000% more people than AT&T and Verizon's 5G networks.
T-Mobile is also touting that its 5G network covers more rural areas than its competition, and that it'll work indoors and outdoors, whereas as other carriers' 5G networks may have trouble penetrating indoor locations.
As for pricing, T-Mobile touts that a 5G mobile plan will cost the same as its current 4G LTE mobile plans.
So far, there are only two phones offered by T-Mobile that will connect to its 5G network, including the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, and the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren. We'll surely see a significant bump in 5G-capable smartphones in 2020.
T-Mobile's nationwide 5G network works on the longer range low-band 600MHz spectrum, which means it won't be as fast as the ultra-fast gigabit speeds that have been associated with 5G networks. Still, it should offer a decent speed and performance boost over the current 4G LTE network.
