High-Band Spectrum Has Role in Some Markets, Says T-Mobile CTO

Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray dove deep on T-Mobile’s 5G spectrum strategy, during a call with analysts Friday as it got the federal antitrust nod to buy Sprint (see 1907260071). The goal is combining low-, mid- and high-band spectrum, he said: “That’s absolutely critical for the type of 5G service that customers can use on a ubiquitous basis. … You need all of those elements.” T-Mobile is mostly invested in the 24 GHz band but has built out 28 GHz licenses and is the first U.S. carrier with millimeter-wave coverage maps, he said. “You can absolutely use millimeter-wave where there are large concentrations of people, where the population exists,” but not to serve the whole country, Ray said. T-Mobile covers 150 million POPs with 600 MHz spectrum, up 50 percent in one quarter, he said. “We are going to bring large, very large-scale coverage on 5G to the U.S. this year, and nationwide as we move into 2020.” The company doesn’t “trash” viability of high-band spectrum, said CEO John Legere. “We have made fun of a millimeter-wave only strategy -- it won’t work.” High-band across the U.S. would cost $1.5 trillion to build, he said.