T-Mobile's new spectrum: a map of what AT&T is giving up

So this is how this works… The FREQUENCY is 1700/2100Mhz PAIRED. The MHZ for the Spectrum is how much POWER or bandwidth, or “lanes of traffic out of 100” are allowed to be used for a particular carrier.
For instance, in San Francisco, where I live, T-Mobile held roughly 33% of all spectrum in multiple frequencies, meaning that they own 1/3 of all lanes of wireless traffic available (doesnt mean they open them all up), AT&T giving T-Mobile 10Mhz or 20Mhz means that AT&T gives up 10 or 20 lanes of traffic over to T-Mobile, and no longer can drive on that freeway of frequencies, in this case, 1700/2100Mhz (also known as AWS freeway). AT&T however has enough 700Mhz freeway that it doesnt matter, but in other cities like Chicago, AT&T has none of it yet, and has to rely on keeping their 10 or 20 lanes of freeway on the AWS.

Where it gets more complex is that now, T-Mobile combined with the AWS freeway, and the PCS freeway (1900Mhz) they already own, plus the new addition of extra lanes on the AWS freeway, mean that total amount of lanes across all different types of freeways T-Mobile owns is now between 60 and 80 lanes out of about 200 total for instance.
What that means is that T-Mobile has quite a few lanes to put its very small customer base on, that means SPEED. It means that T-Mobile can offer (but may not) its customers to drive either at Bahn speeds (German pun in there for the German company), or it may offer above average speeds with a little more traffic because its holding extra lanes for construction for the future, or it may mean in most areas they will free up all lanes, put everyone on, then reconstruct their other lanes on the PCS highway, and eventually pair them all up so you can drive fast on any lane any highway.

I hope that makes sense.

T-Mobile really works hard to have coverage in Minnesota. I’m sure they will implement this as quickly as they can.
It seems like up until now, Verizon was the only way to get great coverage up there.
Definitely important for all the people who live up there and also those who travel north many weekends all summer!

only going ot be an issue if ou were dying for LTE service… AT&T was reserving the AWS spectrum they are giving up here to support their LTE network, whereas TMob use the AWS band for their HSPA+ service…

No. AT&T giving up some spectrum does not affect customers directly at this time. The main reason is that AT&T built out its HSPA network on spectrum they didnt give up. Meaning you arent losing any 3G/4G coverage, or spectrum. AT&T gave up AWS spectrum they planned to use with LTE, however, they also have 700Mhz spectrum, and only gave up the AWS they didnt need and could afford to hand over. Rest assured, AT&T will still have your 3G and 4G networks built out as they currently have, and the loss of AWS spectrum in your area doesnt matter.

Thats interesting because T-Mobile launched HSPA+21 in Philadelphia first, and you shouldnt be needing to use 2G or 1900Mhz to get data.

Maybe I’ll get decent speeds in my neighborhood now. It’s disappointing to get speeds at home that are roughly 5% of what I get when I’m out and about.

it means the LTE they will eventually get might not be as good as it could have been

I think this is as good as we’ll get.

Spectrum doesnt dictate how many bars you get. Tower/equipment placement as well as factors within the phone software/hardware determine how many bars you get. Sometimes but not always “bars” are indicative of your distance from a tower, but also could be (depending on the technology) the quality of signal, quality of service of data, etc. Pretty much you are just in an area that doesnt have a tower close enough, or if it is close, your house may have materials its made from that is preventing a strong signal, ie metals, electrical wires, etc.

I’m guessing there was some negotiations that went on between DT and AT&T before papers were signed.

DT probably wanted lots of spectrum and didn’t really care about the money, AT&T probably just wanted to pay money without giving up spectrum. They met somewhere in the middle.