T-Mobile More Than Doubles its LTE Advanced Footprint to 920+ Markets – Blowing Past Every Other National Wireless Company – and Delivering a Blazing-Fast Experience on Smartphones Powered by Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Gigabit LTE Modems

Qualcomm Press Release

November 9, 2017

At an event for media and analysts in the San Jose Convention Center today, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), and T-Mobile ( NASDAQ: TMUS ) demonstrated the speed and power of Gigabit Class LTE on T-Mobile’s network with flagship smartphones powered by Snapdragon Gigabit LTE modems. The Un-carrier announced that LTE Advanced, the next generation of LTE, has expanded to more than 920 markets, eclipsing every other national wireless company, with a powerful combination of three speed-boosting technologies – carrier aggregation, 4X4 MIMO and 256 QAM – now live in 430 of those markets. T-Mobile also unveiled plans to launch License Assisted Access (LAA), another advanced LTE technology which taps into unlicensed spectrum, on small cells this year to further densify the network for even more capacity and speed.

With LTE Advanced, you can up to double your previous download speeds. With the combination of carrier aggregation, 4X4 MIMO and 256 QAM, speeds can up to double again. Along with sufficient spectrum and backhaul, Gigabit Class LTE is achieved by simultaneously accessing this trifecta of LTE Advanced technologies in both the device and the network to increase capacity, improve spectral efficiency, reduce congestion, and ultimately deliver faster real-world speeds. That means T-Mobile customers with capable devices could get Gigabit Class LTE download speeds in 430 markets.

“This is what I’m talking about when I say T-Mobile has America’s best unlimited network and the only one purpose built for unlimited”, said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile. “Not only do we have a nationwide LTE footprint that’s every bit as broad as the Duopoly’s, and the fastest according to multiple third parties – it also keeps getting faster. Gigabit Class LTE technology is part of the secret sauce behind our success – and why others are struggling under the weight of unlimited – and we’re only continuing to advance with LAA on the horizon.”

T-Mobile has been rolling out LTE Advanced technologies in the network since 2014 and was first globally with 4X4 MIMO and first in the US with 256 QAM. The Un-carrier has more than doubled its LTE Advanced footprint since last year and is rapidly expanding the technology trifecta in its nationwide LTE network on a massive scale. In addition, the capacity and speed capabilities of the Un-carrier’s LAA small cell deployment pave the way for 5G with a dense upgradable infrastructure. Earlier this year, T-Mobile was the first to launch LTE-U , the precursor to LAA, in select locations.

“Global momentum for Gigabit Class LTE is continuing to pick up around the world, and we’re delighted that T-Mobile is planning to deliver gigabit connectivity to millions of consumers in the United States,” said Mike Finley, senior vice president and president, Qualcomm North America and Australia, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “In addition to providing blazing fast mobile connectivity, Gigabit Class LTE enables operators to expand network capacity to accommodate increasing demands by unlimited data plans, and increases overall spectral efficiency, enabling faster speeds for all users in the network.”