New ASW-3 Spectrum that T-Mobile just won in FCC auction.

[Shilohcane]

T-Mobile won a total of 157 licenses and its strategy seemed to be based on winning lots of 5x5 MHz blocks that it can eventually aggregate in markets where it has 15x15 MHz AWS-1 spectrum holdings to create 20x20 MHz channels. T-Mobile won the H Block in Houston, Miami, Cleveland and New Orleans; the G Block in Phoenix and Salt Lake City; the I Block in Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Tenn., and San Antonio and Austin, Texas; and many other paired spectrum blocks in numerous markets.

 

[Almeuit]

It will be an interesting year or two for carriers .

 

[Shilohcane]

It will be an interesting year or two for carriers .

That is for sure. With Google most likely going to become a MVNO under T-Mobile and/or Sprint. Also, just found out about this major European Telco just sold off 45% if it's Verizon stock for $130 billion a year ago and now wants to become a MVNO under T-Mobile.

Vodafone to launch U.S. service in late 2015 as a T-Mobile MVNO

 

[Shilohcane]

700 MHz A Block carrier aggregation that combines T-Mobiles other spectrum is really going to increase data speeds. With all the new phones coming with 700MHz Band 12 Block A support. This is really going to augment TMO's VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling. 2015 could be a watermark year of T-Mobile closing the distances on AT&T and Verizon. Especially if Google's picks T-Mobile as one of their MVNO along with Vodafone that will start a MVNO under TMO by the end of 2015.

"In terms of T-Mobile's own network, Ray said that T-Mobile already supports carrier aggregation between its 700 MHz A Block and 1700 MHz AWS-1 spectrum, including in devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and will add support for carrier aggregation between 1900 MHz PCS and 1700 MHz spectrum later this year, along with carrier aggregation between all three bands.

Carrier aggregation, which is the best-known and most widely used technique of the LTE Advanced standard, bonds together disparate bands of spectrum to create wider channels and produce faster speeds.

Ray also said that "probably" in 2016 T-Mobile will add support for other LTE Advanced features, including enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC), which enables small cells and big macrocells to coexist in the same spectrum and talk to each other, and coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission, which enables multiple towers to communicate with a single device at the same time and improves performance at the cell edge. Ray said the network is further along in being able to support those features but that handsets need to catch up before they can be deployed."

Quote taken from this new TMO story;
http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/story/t-mobiles-ray-5g-will-involve-new-uses-spectrum-were-not-desperate-5g-happe/2015-03-05