T-Mobile isn’t only one rankled about C-band giving 5G a bad name

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert commented how it was regrettable that “this has been so widely reported as a 5G issue,” when asked about C-band spectrum and the concerns of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about possible interference. He’s not alone. A lot of folks regret that the entire 5G market is getting a bad name from C-band. It’s one of the spectrum bands that carriers are using to deliver 5G services –  but one of many. Granted, it’s one of the most valued – companies spent more than $80 billion for the rights to use it in the Federal Communications Commission’s auction in 2021. It’s mid-band spectrum, so it’s considered highly valuable for its coverage and speed characteristics. But it doesn’t define 5G. T-Mobile, for example, uses 600 MHz, 2.5 GHz and 39 GHz for 5G, and when the second tranche of C-band becomes available in 2023, it will have an average 40 MHz of C-band at its disposal. And it just picked up 3.45 GHz spectrum in the FCC’s most recent auction for 5G services, where it spent nearly $3 billion. Of course, Verizon and AT&T were the two biggest spenders in the C-band auction, putting up $45 billion and $23 billion, respectively, before relocation costs. T-Mobile spent about $9 billion. But when headlines hit about airlines canceling flights and FAA concerns about altimeters, they usually didn’t specify 3.7 GHz as the culprit. More often, it was blamed on “5G,” the next generation of wireless technology that carriers are banking on to take them through the next 10 years.