T-Mobile 5G in New York Gets the Full 5G Experience

We talk a lot about the future of 5G and how no carrier has been able to deliver on all of the 5G promises we’ve heard about for several years. We are still far from that happening too, but T-Mobile just took a major step toward a 5G future that, if anything, will give you the most flexible 5G connection yet.

The T-Mobile 5G Layer Cake

In New York City, T-Mobile has fired up its “Layer Cake” 5G setup, which means they have live networks in low-band, mid-band, and mmWave 5G. This is a first for any carrier in the US.

The “layer cake” idea here should allow supported phones to switch to the best 5G network that is available at any moment. If you are in Manhattan, that could mean a connection to super fast 5G mmW. As you travel around NYC, you may jump onto mid-band 5G and still see impressive speeds. Should you take a drive out of the city, that will likely mean a switch to low-band 5G and what we hope will still be a solid connection.

Supported T-Mobile 5G phones

At this time, T-Mobile has announced that the Samsung Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra are the “first to have access” to this new layer cake. The regular S20 is not included there because the smaller S20 doesn’t have 5G mmW support.

We will see additional phones that can take advantage of T-Mobile’s three different 5G bands at some point, though T-Mobile hasn’t said which ones. Also, next year with the launch of Qualcomm’s X60 5G modem will really make 5G fun as it’ll let phones combine these layers to produce robust 5G experiences. That modem is supposed to arrive alongside the Snapdragon 875 or whatever Qualcomm names it.

If you are in New York City and own a Galaxy S20+ or Galaxy S20 Ultra, let us know how the 5G experience is. You getting faster speeds or more stable 5G connections?