T-Mobile Achieves 500 Mbps UPLOADS with 5G Advanced Network and Off-the-Shelf MediaTek Smartphone
When 5G was first being proposed, we were promised incredibly fast speeds to stream video, download a season of TV while walking on the jetway of the plane, and self-driving cars that talk to each other. We got the stable video streaming, so that's good. Once the carriers had access to mid-band spectrum, we also saw reasonably fast download speeds in most metropolitan areas (though not usually fast enough for the season-in-a-minute pipe dream).
5G is genuinely faster than 4G for downloads, but what about uploads? Those have typically been the same speed as 4G or just slightly faster, in part because many times the network technology being used for uploads is actually still 4G.
T-Mobile is changing that.
This isn't an arcane technical issue: there are plenty of times when upload speeds are more important than downloads. YouTubers and TickTockers are obvious candidates, but the truth is that nearly everyone is a content creator these days, trying to upload video clips of their kid's sports moments, clips from the event they're at or hike they're on, and, in my mother's case, puppet shows she puts on for her grandchildren (it's adorable). I can personally attest to the anxiety of trying send an updated large presentation attachment in email and waiting for the icon to change that indicates it went through.
T-Mobile has an all-5G network architecture that it is upgrading to 5G Advanced, and it just completed a test where it achieved record 550 Mbps uploads on a live network. This was done at a commercial location in Seattle (not a lab) using a flagship smartphone powered by a MediaTek Dimensity SoC with an integrated M90 modem. T-Mobile used 100MHz of TDD spectrum (n41) and 35MHz of FDD spectrum (n25), connecting to Nokia infrastructure. This is all standards compliant (3GPP Release 17) on sub-6 spectrum, which T-Mobile has licenses to all throughout the country, so we should actually start to see this type of performance throughout the U.S. in the relatively near future. Exciting stuff!
T-Mobile press release: T‑Mobile Sets New Uplink Speed Record with 5G Advanced - T‑Mobile Newsroom
For Techsponential clients, a report is a springboard to personalized discussions and strategic advice. To discuss the implications of this report on your business, product, or investment strategies, contact Techsponential at avi@techsponential.com.