“When you’re a heavy data user with a super-fast 5G smartphone, you don’t want to be hit with speed bumps. It’s like having a Ferrari and being forced to drive it in the school zone. Well, now it’s time to open ‘er upon the wide-open magenta road! And we are just getting started. Buckle up!” said T-Mobile CEO, Mike Sievert.
The Telecom industry has been working to ensure that the 5G network is a reality for all. Lately, 5G has been a buzz with many thinking that the latest network is a bit overhyped. With T-Mobile’s announcement about their plan to introduce their 5G unlimited data plan for smartphones making a huge milestone, 5G for all may just be a step away.
The German-owned T-Mobile unveiled their Magenta Max, the new data plan designed for heavy data users needing uninterrupted fast-paced connection and those who can not wait to begin their 5G experience. The new data will be replacing Magenta Plus, the previous data package, and will already be available from 24th February. A special feature of the new data package is no throttling, making it possible for customers to use data without the fear of slowing their connection speed after a data limit has been reached.
T-Mobile is also planning to bump “the core Magenta plan with double the Premium Data, from 50Gb to 100GB and nearly double the high-speed smartphone mobile hotspot data, from 3GB to 5GB”.
Here is the T-Mobile’s 5G Plan
As contained in their news report, T-Mobile said: “T-Mobile has lit up the highest capacity 5G network available, a network so powerful it can start unleashing the power of 5G to deliver unlimited premium data.”
Magenta Max includes a 40GB high-speed tethering data plan with “unlimited 4K UHD” video streaming and the Netflix on Us plan is also extended to single-line customers. What more? Customers can also get inflight wifi, scam shield protection, and wide international coverage.
The new plan will also include a zero-cost switch deal. This means that other network users including AT&T and Verizon can get up to $650 with no device switching costs attached should they bring their own device.
And for how much do all these cost? T-Mobile says it will cost $57 per line per month for three lines including autopay, monthly taxes, and fees. For customers who will prefer a limited-time plan, this is dropped to $47 per line per month for three lines. The plan is more expensive for single-line customers costing $85 per month with autopay.
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T-Mobile 5G Standalone Move
One of the challenges early users of the 5G encountered was the non-standalone (NSA) feature offered by the network providers. The NSA feature allows smartphone users to access 5G but relying on the core 4G feature. But some of the promises of 5G will not be harnessed with NSA.
To overcome this hurdle, America’s T-Mobile became one of the world’s first telecom companies to offer the standalone (SA) feature in August and by far the largest. With the SA feature, mobile 5G users can access the 5G network without the 4G feature.
In their survey, following the data collected from their customers, Opensignal found that 5G network availability improved as users’ time when connected to 5G improved following the SA switch and even in the rural areas. 5G responsiveness got better as the latency fell with the withdrawal of NSA.
The SA network switch also increased T-Mobile’s 5G wide coverage by 30 percent, reaching 250 million people across the U.S. as SA allowed their 600MHz footprint of 5G to be unleashed. Lower frequencies propagated wider coverage while higher frequencies propagated shorter coverage but higher speed.
T-Mobile’s 5G availability grew slowly from 26 percent to 26.9 percent two months before the NSA network switch in the urban areas while no availability growth was recorded in the rural area. This shows a growth contrast five months after the SA switch as it jumped to a 31.5 percent increase for the urban area and a 33.3 percent increase for the rural area.
Using the SA network also shows a disparity in the amount of time spent while connected to 5G. Urban and rural NSA 5G network users spent 27.8 and 27.4 percent of their time and using the SA 5G network, they spent 3.7 and 5.9 percent respectively.
What Does it all Mean for 5G?
A vibrant and increased competitive market is usually a benefit to customers. In the coming months, we anticipate other 5G rollout packages from other telecommunication giants and other fast-paced changes that may catalyze the full experience and benefits of the promises of 5G. And hopefully, we will get past hearing about the fantasies of 5G and begin to experience
