Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- T-Mobile is preparing to add 5G-Advanced to its network, with plans to begin rolling it out before the end of 2024.
- 5G-Advanced, also known as 5.5G, is a mid-cycle upgrade that promises faster speeds, improvements to Massive MIMO, high-precision finding, and energy efficiency.
- You will likely need a new smartphone with the requisite hardware and licenses to enjoy the benefits of this mid-cycle network upgrade.
Nowadays, all Android flagships come with 5G support, and carriers have been ramping up their network to give customers the 5G advantage, especially in crowded urban areas. If 5G didn’t satisfy your need for network speed, we’re already staring at another network upgrade in the form of 5G-Advanced. The good news is that T-Mobile plans to bring 5G-Advanced to its network before the end of this year.
T-Mobile’s President of Technology, Ulf Ewaldsson, mentioned to Fierce Network that T-Mobile plans to deliver its 5G-Advanced-based service by the end of 2024. The service will offer features such as improved spectral efficiency and advanced positioning.
T-Mobile is said to be ahead on its 5G-Advanced plans because it has deployed a nationwide 5G standalone (5G SA) network instead of running a 5G RAN on a 4G LTE core, allowing it to roll out 5G-Advanced to its network as a software update. The report notes that AT&T started to deploy 5G standalone in late 2022, and Verizon has now launched standalone in several states in the US, but neither carrier has a nationwide 5G SA footprint yet.
Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority
5G-Advanced, also known as 5.5G and formally defined in 3GPP Release 18, is an upgrade to existing 5G networks. It promises faster speeds, improvements to Massive MIMO, high-precision finding, and energy efficiency by letting devices enter low-power states when idle.
Once the network comes online, smartphone OEMs and chip makers will start heavily touting 5G-Advanced capabilities in their smartphones. Not only does the modem need to support 5G-Advanced (most of Qualcomm’s recent releases, like the Snapdragon X75, X72, and X80 modems, support it), but the phone also needs to include the requisite RF antenna hardware and licenses to use 5G-Advanced.
The OPPO Find X7 series in China supports 5G-Advanced (5.5G) on China Mobile. We couldn’t locate reliable information for smartphones that already support this network in the US. We could likely see a new wave of 5G-Advanced-ready smartphones once the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 possibly launches with the Snapdragon X80 modem. So, if you were hoping to enjoy 5.5G, you might need a new smartphone.
