At this year's MWC, the buzzword that seems to be heard in most presentations and promotional materials is 5G, and T-Mobile isn't waiting around. AT&T has revealed some of its desires for 5G in the coming years, but team magenta's plans are ambitious. Even as it claims not to want to "win the 2018 race," the company wants 30 cities set up with high-frequency 5G by the end of 2018. Unfortunately, you won't actually be able to use it until next year. 

In both its press release and the recent announcement at MWC, T-Mobile was apt to poke fun at AT&T's recently announced plans, as the company's marketing is prone to do. But it did offer one interesting bit of trivia: Neville Ray revealed that 80% of calls on the company's network are using VoLTE.

In total, T-Mobile wants to have 5G available on its 28GHz and 39GHz millimeter wave as well as its recently acquired 600MHz spectrum. The timeframe for each wasn't defined and the company's 600MHz expansion is still mostly nascent, but T-Mobile wants to at least have some of its millimeter wave 5G network live in 30 cities including NYC, LA, Dallas, and Las Vegas by the end of the year.

The company's other 5G related plans were mostly realistic. T-Mobile expects to be offering 5G-compatible phones in 2019, with the company refusing to participate in what John Legere called "a meaningless race to be first." That leaves us a bit confused as to precisely which devices will be using the millimeter wave frequencies for 5G that T-Mobile plans to have out this year since none of its current handsets support it.

T-Mobile's marketing today makes it clear that it wants to be seen as one-upping the other carriers' plans, focusing on phones rather than pucks and low-frequency bands (that are better for mobile devices) rather than just millimeter wave. It has even promised to have its 5G millimeter wave service live in more cities than AT&T and Verizon have planned combined. But looking past the hyperbole and hype, the lack of devices is concerning.

Just like the other American carriers, we'll probably just have to wait and see how well T-Mobile can deliver.

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