Everyone is excited about 5G coming soon! But what you may be missing is that all phones before 2020 (with 2 exclusions) will not work on T-Mobile 5G 600MHz network at all! Let me explain about band n71.
Your phone has a radio. This communicates with the towers built nationwide to send and receive data. Be it calls, texts, or data packets. Depending on your phone, you only support certain “Bands” which is frequencies to talk to the tower. The lower the band, the further the phone can be away from the tower and still talk to it. The higher the band, the tighter/closer you need to be to the tower to get a signal. So when you hear T-Mobile advertise “Low band 5G” they are referring to low distance signal 5G. Great for rural areas such as countryside, and mountains. High band (such as millimeter) is very short distance. Currently Verizon and AT&T are using this method first and benefits very few users at a time.
What is important to remember here, is “BANDS”
T-Mobile 5G 600MHz band is called n71.
However…
the 4G LTE T-Mobile 600MHz band is called 71
Take notice in the “n” in the 5G version, vs the 4G LTE. This is IMPORTANT!
There are only 2 phones created before 2020 that supports n71. Both over $900 price tag.
Which means when you see any advertising for T-Mobile “NEW 5G 600MHz” network… Don’t be fooled into believing the 4G LTE 600MHz device you currently have can connect to the 5G speeds… It can’t! Unless it’s one of those 2 devices above.. And somehow I highly doubt a majority of readers of this article own those sole 2 devices. Fine the devices that support n71 on T-Mobile website here. And see all 5G bands here.
Currently as of writing of this article, not in their video advertisements.
No. iPhones don’t support Band n71, which means they can’t connect to 5G 600MHz.
No. Not unless you use the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ 5G. All other Samsung phones can’t connect to the T-Mobile 5G 600MHz network.
No. Not unless you use the “OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren” or “Samsung Galaxy Note10+ 5G”. All other phones don’t support band n71 for 5G T-Mobile 600MHz.