T-Mobile to launch nationwide 5G on Dec. 6

During this morning’s Uncarrier event, T-Mobile COO Mike Sievert and CEO John Legere announced that T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G coverage will roll out Friday, December 6. “When we launch, we launch big — straight national — with 200 million people covered on day one,” announced Mike Sievert on the Uncarrier event livestream.

Two smartphones will initially support T-Mobile’s 5G network: the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G and the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G. More 5G devices will be launched on the network in 2020.

T-Mobile 5G will span over 5,000 cities and towns by the end of the year. You can learn more about T-Mobile’s 5G plans in our guide right here.

“When we combine Sprint’s mid band with T-Mobile’s low band and mmWave spectrum, we can unlock ridiculous amounts of network capacity,” continued Sievert. “This is something we could never do if the [T-Mobile-Sprint merger] doesn’t happen.”

T-Mobile claims 5G speeds will reach 450Mbps in the US by 2024. Considering LTE today reaches speeds of around 25-40Mbps, T-Mobile’s 5G network is slated to be more than 10x faster than our current LTE speeds.

We tested T-Mobile’s 5G network in New York in June 2019 with the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. We were able to achieve maximum download speeds of about 510Mbps during our testing. It’s important to note, though, that the carrier’s 5G network will only get stronger as it’s deployed to more cities around the US.