The new data of Ookla gives us a good look at why Verizon and AT&T were in such a hurry to roll their new C-band 5G spectrum.
In rolling the new midband 5G frequencies, both carriers do not even move forward two weeks, and Ocla sees a noticeable increase in 5G speed across the country. These speed jamps have the ability to ignore T-Mobiles as front-raner in the 5G race.
Following a frenzied dispute with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and comprehensive aviation industry, Verizon and AT&T began rolling a new C-band spectrum on 19 January, promising to improve dramatic performance for their 5G customers.
Verizon made everyone's boldest claims, saying that it would use the new spectrum as part of its 5G ultra wideband service, which would expand to cover more than 100 million people in more than 1,700 cities. Verizon's 5G ultra wideband service originally used only high-existence (and small-ranges) MMWave techniques, which allowed the carrier to offer incredibly fast speed, but only in some major urban centers.
Meanwhile, AT & T has taken a more conservative approach, rolling its new C-band spectrum in only seven cities: Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and Austin in Texas; Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami in Florida; And Chicago and Detroit.
Why C-Band is important
The rollout of the new C-band spectrum promises to fix the 5G landscape in the US, allowing the carrier to give its customers to give the right 5G speed.
Earlier, both AT & T and Verizon were limited to low-omature spectrum, which used to share space with their 4G/LTE network using technology known as Dynamic Spectrum sharing (DSS). As a result, neither carrier was able to provide nationwide 5G speed which was better than 4G. In fact, some reports suggested that the customers were perfectly better than disabled 5G on their smartphone and were simply living on their carrier's 4G/LTE service.
An exception to this was T-Mobile, already a healthy part of the midband spectrum for its 2020 merger with sprints. This allowed the carrier to start a head on its rivals, as part of its ultra capacity 5G service as part of the 5G service rolled fast spectrum for more than 200 million customers.
Results so far
Thanks to his initial lead, T-Mobile has secured number one place in 5G performance, coverage and coverage, but it may soon change.
A new report by Ocla suggests that T-Mobile rivals are already closing the interval, just a few days after the switch on the new C-band spectrum.
Most importantly, Verizon's average nationwide performance increased by about 52 percent in the week of 19 January, when its new C-band service went live, first broke the 100Mbps barrier. Many Verizon customers also watched the “5G UW” icon show on their smartphone for the first time, which probably ran a spike in testing by people on Verizon.
While AT&T saw no meaningful growth nationwide, Ocla reported noticeable growth in specific cities where the carrier deployed its C-band service. For example, AT and T customers experienced a 12 percent increase in average download speed in Austin, Texas.
Billions of invested
Earlier last year, the three American carriers spend billions to lift the new C-band spectrum in auction, with Verizon falling by $ 45.4 billion to break records for their stocks, followed by AT&T 23.4 billion and T-Mobile $ 9.3 billion.
Even the initial auction was controversial, with the FAA warning that the new C-band frequencies were closely close to people used by important aircraft devices such as radar ultimators. However, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Proceeded with auction,
The carriers planned to start rolling a new C-band spectrum on 5 December, 2021, but twice agreed to push the schedule back, first January 5, 2022, and then by 19 January. However, the latter delay came only after a few intense discussions, the direct participation of the White House officials, and the President who was a vested promise by Biden that there would be no solutions there.
However, it seems that the billions of invested dollars and months in advance of months are already paid, especially for Verizon and her customers. The Ookla notes that if Verizon continues its aggressive C-band rollout, it can give T-mobile a run for its money when Ookla publishes its next speedtest global index market analysis.
However, we should not count AT & T yet. Despite its slow start, the carrier planned to use its C-band with a part of the low-frequency 3.45–3.55GHz spectrum at the end of this year. These frequencies will be very less controversial for deployment around airports, as they are well clear from 4GHz+ spectrum that can adversely affect aviation devices.
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