T-Mobile
CTO at MWCA: Sprint merger will accelerate 5G
By Corinne Reichert, ZDNet, September 13, 2018
The
T-Mobile
merger with Sprint will mean a faster deployment of 5G services across the United States, Neville Ray has said, with the
T-Mobile
CTO still positive the transaction
will be approved.
Speaking with ZDNet in an interview during Mobile World Congress Americas (MWCA) in Los Angeles on Thursday, Ray cited the
compelling business case of the merger for consumers, society, and 5G advancement.
The combination of
T-Mobile
and Sprint can put 5G really on the map in the US marketplace way faster that either company could do on their own, or AT&T and Verizon could do on their own quite frankly, Ray said.
Echoing comments from Sprint executive chair Marcelo Claure on Wednesday at MWCA that the US cannot win the 5G race without the merger, Ray said the
combination of the two companies would actually accelerate that push for 5G.
While
T-Mobile
is
currently focused on the 600MHz spectrum band, and Sprint is rolling out 5G across its 2.5GHz holdings while Verizon and AT&T both focus on millimetre-wave (mmWave) spectrum Ray said his company also holds spectrum in the 28GHz and
39GHz mmWave bands.
You cant deliver a broad 5G experience with just millimetre wave; weve talked for much of the last 18 months about
a multi-band 5G strategy, so millimetre wave for urban pockets, then
mid-
and
low-band
spectrum for everything from faster smartphones services and enhanced mobile
broadband to broad coverage for IoT services, he said.
A big part again of the Sprint transaction is this combination of multi-band spectrum
assets that allows us to go after the full spectrum of 5G opportunities and use cases.
Ray is also unfazed by the Federal Communications
Commissions note earlier this week that it will need more time in its deliberations on the merger, saying this is a common occurrence in transactions of such size and scale.
We have to submit a lot of documentation and information to the FCC and the Department of Justice, but from the FCCs perspective, we just
submitted high volumes of data on the network and the model and all those pieces, and they just said we need a little time out to process all of this information and data, Ray explained.
But the progress so far is very good ... dialogue has been very positive with FCC and Department of Justice.
Speaking on how the merger will occur, Ray explained that Sprints customer base will be moved onto
T-Mobiles
network.
Youd expand and keep some of the Sprint sites where you need them for the
capacity and coverage, but youd effectively bring the customers over to the one network, thats the integration process, he explained.
Its kind of a
two-
to three-year process to migrate that customer base across onto the one network. During
that period, were building out 5G at an accelerated pace that we couldnt do on our own or Sprint couldnt do on their own, so we free up a lot of spectrum in the combination for dedicated 5G services much faster.
On T-Mobiles $3.5 billion deal with Ericsson announced this week, and its $3.5 billion Nokia deal announced in July, Ray
said it shows the carrier is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to 5G.
Thats all about getting 5G down on top of this 600MHz
layer, so the gear were deploying now is 5G capable, and well have the software capability on 5G as we look to the latter part of the year in 19, devices coming on in 19, and so 5G is finally starting to become very real. Our
goal and objective is to build nationwide coverage by 2020, he said.
The Cisco deal for a virtualised packet core, meanwhile, is aimed at
preparing us for the future and agility on our services and capabilities.
Ray also lauded Verizons efforts to bring more competition to
the cable companies via its new 5G Home offering, saying a
Sprint/T-Mobile
entity would also be going after the fixed market.