The roll out of 5G has been more complicated than before. We weren't hearing terms like "midband" or "C-band" in the days of 3G and 4G.
The same way that 5G has changed the way that wireless communications are done, those technologies didn't promise to do the same thing. The best 4G/LTE service was limited to use by phones and tablets. 5G is already a viable replacement for home and business internet services.
The exclusive domain of expensive broadband wired plans can now be delivered by 5G. All that power comes with its own set of challenges.
The best frequencies for 5G radio signals are among these. Carriers and regulators have to figure out where to put 5G signals so they don't interfere with anything else, as the airwaves aren't getting any less crowded.
For 5G to deliver on its promise, it needs to break new ground in the radio spectrum, using frequencies that have never before carried cellular services.
Frequency, speed, and range are related when working with radio frequencies. Higher frequencies provide more bandwidth, which means faster speeds, but they can't cover as wide an area. Lower frequencies travel a lot farther and can penetrate solid objects more effectively.
If you've ever tried to improve your home wi-fi, you're probably familiar with this concept. The 5 GHz band delivers faster speeds at a shorter distance than the 2.4 GHz band. The principle is the same with cellular frequencies.
If you want to provide more coverage in your home, you can invest in a mesh wi-fi system. The same thing needs to be done by cellular carriers; they need to build more towers.
Since we expect 5G to be much faster than the cellular services that came before, it needs to run on higher frequencies. Although 5G offers some innovations that allow it to make better use of whatever bandwidth it has, it is still limited by the laws of physics as to how much data it can pack into a given Frequency.
It's not the only thing using the airwaves. Everything in your home, from your garage door opener to your internet connection, operates in the same general radio spectrum. There are a lot of things in the world, including amateur radio services, aviation equipment, maritime radio, and much more.
The FCC regulates frequencies which can be used and who can use them.
Before 5G came along, cellular services lived in the area from 600MHz to 2,300MHz, mostly in the 800 and 1.9 GHz range. Since newer technologies like 3G and 4G/LTE operated in the same range, there was rarely any need to buy new spectrum.
When 5G arrived, things changed. It's not ideal to run 5G on these lower frequencies. Incremental performance gains over 4G/LTE will only be offered by low-band 5G. To truly benefit from what 5G has to offer, carriers needed to get their hands on some higher-frequency spectrum.
Above the frequencies most commonly used for cellular services sits the _midband_ or _midrange_ spectrum. This runs from 1 GHz to 6 GHz and is considered to be in the 2.4 GHz to 4 GHz range. This is also where 5G will be. It can deliver significantly faster speeds than 4G/LTE without requiring that carriers deploy hundreds of additional towers.
This is where the C-band spectrum is located.
The C-band runs from 4-7 GHz, while the 2 GHz frequencies are designated as part of the S-band. When the FCC went looking for spectrum that could be reallocated for 5G use, it found a chunk from 3.7 to 4.2 GHz that could be freed up, and since that crossed into C-band territory, it chose to use that name for the whole block.
Fixed Satellite Service allocated the band for transferring data from space to Earth-based stations. The entire block was known as the "conventional C-band" since it was used to send signals back into space.
The FCC was able to carve out 280MHz of spectrum in this band for use by 5G operators. This became part of the landmark 2020 FCC auction in which the FCC auctioned off essential new spectrum to the highest bidder.
However, other companies were also in this. T-Mobile's bid came in at $9.3 billion, while AT&T dropped $23.4 billion.
After the dust had settled on the FCC's spectrum auction, AT&T and Verizon got to work on rolling out their new frequencies.
The FAA and the U.S. Department of Transportation called for a delay in the implementation of the new frequencies because they were dangerously close to the 4.2 GHz range used by aircraft radar altimeters. On January 19, 2022, the two carriers turned the key on their new midband service, finally delivering true 5G speeds to their customers.
The new C-band was incorporated into the 5G Ultra Wideband Service. The carrier said that more than 100 million people would be covered in more than 1,700 cities.
AT&T initially rolled out its C-band spectrum in seven cities, with plans to expand gradually.
AT&T has played its cards more carefully. AT&T hedged its bets, picking up a bit of the higher-frequency spectrum but holding off until it could fetch a less controversial chunk in a later auction.
The introduction of 5G services on the new C-band spectrum allows all three carriers to offer the speeds that 5G was born to deliver.
Before the C-band was rolled out, AT&T and Verizon were stuck using lower-frequency spectrum and sharing it with their 4G/LTE networks. 5G speeds were barely distinguishable from 4G/LTE service.
T-Mobile was ahead of the game. The Un-carrier got a larger swath of 2.5 GHz spectrum when it merged with Sprint. The spectrum it used for its Ultra Capacity 5G service was quickly decommissioned.
T-Mobile reached more than 200 million customers with impressive 5G speeds months before AT&T and Verizon did. T-Mobile has been ranked number one in 5G performance, coverage, and reliability.
Over the past few months, the gap has been closing because of the use of the new C-band spectrum by AT&T. Although T-Mobile picked up some of that spectrum in last year's auction, it is using it to supplement its existing 2.5 GHz network.
While T-Mobile has had an obvious head start, AT&T and Verizon may have a decided advantage by using the higher C-band frequencies. The move from low-band to C-band should allow both carriers to offer even faster speeds, even if they have to build a few more towers.
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