T-Mobile completes 600MHz 5G call, 5G spectrum triggers "fight" among all parties in the United States

Today, US telecom operator T-Mobile announced that it has completed the world's first 5G call based on the 600MHz low frequency band in cooperation with Qualcomm, Ericsson and other manufacturers, laying the foundation for its further development of 5G coverage in the 600Hz frequency band across the United States.

This low-frequency band 5G call was completed jointly with Qualcomm, Ericsson and other manufacturers. Qualcomm provided the Snapdragon X55 5G baseband, and Ericsson provided system equipment support on the network side.

Intel withdraws from T-Mobile's partnership with Qualcomm

Qualcomm also announced the news on its official website, saying that the call was completed on a mobile test device, which is composed of the second-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G baseband and RF front-end solution. The X55 5G baseband can support almost any frequency band and multiple networking modes, including millimeter wave, below 6GHz, as well as independent networking and non-independent networking, etc.

Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon said the call was a milestone in the construction of 5G networks across the United States, paving the way for the deployment of low-frequency commercial networks and the launch of equipment.

Neville Ray, CTO of T-Mobile, also said that this is a key step in achieving its 5G vision and will help further cover the national 5G network. If regulators agree to the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, they will obtain key mid-band frequency resources, thereby further improving their coverage capabilities on the 5G network.

Unlike the other two US telecom operators AT&T and Verizon, which mainly choose millimeter wave frequency bands to carry out 5G construction, T-Mobile chose 600MHz as the main frequency band for developing 5G. This spectrum was purchased by T-Mobile from an auction two years ago.

It is worth noting that before this 600MHz low-frequency band call experiment, T-Mobile's partners were Intel and Ericsson. In January this year, T-Mobile announced that it had completed the world's first 5G data call and video call in the 600MHz band with Intel and Ericsson. The 5G signal of a 600MHz base station covered more than one thousand square miles. However, in April this year, Intel announced its withdrawal from the 5G baseband business, causing T-Mobile to turn to Qualcomm for cooperation.

As of the end of 2018, T-Mobile has deployed an extended LTE network using 600MHz spectrum in more than 1,250 towns in 37 states in the United States, which can be upgraded to support 5G when necessary.

T-Mobile previously stated that the 600MHz 5G network will be released in the second half of this year. This time point mainly depends on the maturity of the network and terminal equipment, and whether it can support low-frequency bands. Ericsson's 5G base stations are now ready, and smartphones equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G baseband will also be launched in the second half of the year. Therefore, this cooperation means that T-Mobile's 5G network will start construction in the second half of the year.

5G spectrum leads to fight between US federal agencies

Compared with high-frequency millimeter waves, medium and low frequencies below 6GHz have a wide coverage capability. Unlike millimeter waves, they are not easily blocked by external environments such as buildings and trees, resulting in signal attenuation. Unlike millimeter waves, they are not mainly used in urban hot spots, but can be widely constructed across the country. However, the peak rate performance of medium and low frequency bands is not as good as that of millimeter waves.

Currently, US operators are mainly building networks in the millimeter wave high frequency band. The reason is that the low frequency bands in the United States are mainly used in public infrastructure, military, satellite and other fields, and most of them are owned by US federal agencies. There are not enough frequency bands allocated to operators for the development of 5G networks. However, the Trump administration is now vigorously promoting 5G construction, listing 5G, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and quantum information technology as the four major technological directions of the United States in the future. In order to compete for the dominance and voice in the global 5G field, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States is also actively promoting the allocation and auction of related frequency bands.

Recently, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to auction a key band of underutilized 2.5GHz spectrum to help promote the development of 5G wireless networks. This band has always belonged to the U.S. Department of Education and is used for broadcast education in rural areas, which has also caused dissatisfaction among those involved in the education sector.

In terms of high frequency bands, last year the FCC conducted its first 5G spectrum auction, 28GHz. In May of this year, it conducted an auction of 24GHz. The White House hopes to release more 24GHz spectrum, but the current owners of this band include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), who believe that it will interfere with weather forecasts. Today, the White House held a special internal meeting on 5G spectrum for communication and coordination.