T-Mobile announces it now covers 200 million people with 2.5 GHz 5G

T-Mobile announced it now covers 200 million people with Ultra Capacity 5G, the moniker for its 2.5 GHz coverage, which is six weeks ahead of schedule. It’s also farther ahead of its rivals than what was envisioned even a couple weeks ago. That’s because AT&T and Verizon agreed to delay their comparable mid-band coverage by a month while they work out concerns raised by the aviation community about C-band spectrum, which was auctioned by the FCC earlier in 2021. T-Mobile also bought C-band spectrum, but it isn’t nearly as reliant upon it for 5G mid-band as its rivals. Once a laggard in wireless coverage, T-Mobile is making its rivalry all about 5G, for which it claimed nationwide coverage with 600 MHz spectrum back in 2019. The bulk of T-Mobile’s mid-band spectrum is a result of its merger with Sprint, which brought an average of more than 150 megahertz of 2.5 GHz spectrum/market to the union. The Ultra Capacity brand also includes millimeter wave (mmWave), which is just a fraction of what T-Mobile’s 2.5 GHz spectrum covers. The company plans to cover a population of 300 million with Ultra Capacity 5G by the end of 2023.