But I'm curious what's involved in upping a cell towers spectrum to 20x20? Is it costly, timely, complicated?
Posted using Android Central App on my Samsung Galaxy S4 T-Mobile
The only way spectrum can be acquired is either through the government or through another entity that bought spectrum from the government. Also spectrum is sold by cma (cellular market area), or sometimes multiple cma's are combined when sold. But the point being a carrier might have 20x20mhz in one cma but not in another.
Now, assuming that the carrier has 20x20mhz spectrum in your area, then they may need to upgrade the cell tower equipment to support it as well as the backhaul which supplies the cell tower.
On Verizon, the backhaul is 150mbps, but divided into Verizon's 2 bands. So even though Verizon aws 20x20mhz is capable of 150mbps, it is limited by the backhaul. TMobile doesn't need to broadcast lte on multiple bands yet though they will do so once they deploy band 12.
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