Hailed as an industry first, with NR CA T-Mobile can combine its different 5G spectrum bands – starting with 2.5 GHz mid-band and 600MHz low-band – increasing speeds and expanding the footprint of T-Mobile’s mid-band 5G network as well as its nationwide SA 5G.
“When it comes to our network and what we deliver to customers, we never rest on our laurels,” said Abdul Saad (pictured), chief technology officer at T-Mobile.
“We have the first and largest nationwide 5G network, covering over 250 million people across 1.3 million square miles, and we’ll never stop working with industry leaders to develop and refine new technologies like this so we can deliver #5GforAll.”
T-Mobile customers can access three different types of 5G spectrum — low, mid and high-band — but they can only unleash capacity from one of those 5G layers at a time. With NR CA devices can combine the capacity of the different layers.
Initially, NR CA combines 2.5GHz and 600MHz which during trials boosted download speeds on 2.5GHz 5G by 20% which will continue to get better over time.
"We are delighted to see the full capabilities of LG Velvet 5G experienced with T-Mobile's 5G standalone New Radio Carrier Aggregation," said Chris Yie, head of LG Mobile, North America.
"LG Velvet 5G is the perfect device to demonstrate this momentous milestone in the rollout of 5G in the US It boasts a stylish and sleek design with lightning-fast speeds and robust performance -- all at a reasonable price."
In addition, NR CA also increases T-Mobile’s 2.5GHz 5G footprint. By combining a mid-band downlink with a low-band uplink, the 2.5GHz 5G signal will travel as far as the base station allows without being limited by the mid-band uplink. Instead, the uplink will travel back to the tower on low-band 5G, which travels farther.
“The deployment of 5G NR CA promises to bring ultra-fast 5G experiences to even more consumers with its improved coverage and capacity,” said Yenchi Lee, deputy general manager of wireless communications at MediaTek.
“This achievement of testing the first 5G NR CA data call on the LG VELVET, powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 1000C, represents another key milestone in our vision to make 5G accessible to everyone.”
The test was completed on T-Mobile’s exclusive version of LG VELVET 5G, which is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1000C 5G chipset. Ericsson also provided 5G radio network hardware and software.
