T-Mobile US’ push to expand LTE coverage and capabilities is set to receive a boost from long-time vendor Ericsson, which announced a deal to supply equipment and services covering 700 MHz spectrum, LTE-Advanced and IP-based voice support.
According to Ericsson, the deal is an expansion of its initial LTE agreement with T-Mobile US dating back to 2012, which called for the carrier to spend $4 billion upgrading its network to support LTE services. That announcement came just a few months after AT&T called off its attempted $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile US. T-Mobile USA’s initial LTE plans also included Nokia Siemens Networks, which is now just Nokia Networks.
As part of the latest deployment, Ericsson will install new LTE-A base station equipment that will allow for the integration of 700 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum. T-Mobile US is currently using its 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum to support LTE services, its 1.9 GHz spectrum to support legacy 2G and 3G operations and is beginning to tap into 700 MHz spectrum licenses it has acquired over the past year.
T-Mobile US said it had surpassed 230 million potential customers covered at the end of the second quarter with its current LTE deployment, with plans to further expand thanks to the propagation characteristics of the 700 MHz licenses. The carrier is also looking to begin re-farming its 1.9 GHz spectrum to add capacity to its LTE network.
Reports indicate that T-Mobile US has already begun turning on LTE support across the 700 MHz band in some markets.
Voice enhancements
Ericsson also said it will deploy enhanced single radio voice call continuity technology into the network, which is designed to allow for seamless handoff of voice calls between 2G and 3G networks and voice over LTE services deployed over LTE networks. The capabilities are bolstered by the use of Ericsson’s Session Border Gateway and Media Resource System. The support is also set to include Ericsson’s Evolved Packet Data Gateway to support handoff of voice calls between VoLTE and voice-over-Wi-Fi services.
T-Mobile US began rolling out commercial VoLTE services earlier this year, expanding the offering to more than 100 million pops covered by summer. Earlier this month, T-Mobile US (re-)added VoWi-Fi support that included seamless support between Wi-Fi and its LTE network. (T-Mobile USA had previously launched VoWi-Fi services as part of its HotSpot@Home service.)
Verizon Wireless last week rolled out nationwide VoLTE services, though the offering initially lacks the ability to hand off calls between the carrier’s LTE and legacy 3G network.
Ericsson also said it was working with T-Mobile US on the decommissioning of redundant MetroPCS sites, including “repurposing or recycling of removed site material.”
MetroPCS had said it would decommission up to 10,000 sites as part of its acquisition by T-Mobile US, which closed in early 2013. T-Mobile US has since aggressively been integrating the MetroPCS network assets, including spectrum support, while also continuing to run the MetroPCS brand with expanded coverage.
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