T-Mobile US is one of the most successful network carriers in the United States, generating US$66.2 billion in services revenue in 2024. It’s a household name in America, with its antennas and Millimeter Wave (mmWave) technologies being used to connect the Superdome in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. While everyone knows who T-Mobile is, few are familiar with the technological underpinnings of its forward-looking solutions.
A key pillar of the Bellevue, Washington-based telco’s future success is its 5G Standalone (SA) solutions. 5G SA enables T-Mobile to offer customers lower latencies, faster speeds, and improved edge computing support.
T-Mobile has gained its own comparative advantages in the U.S. market through industry firsts. Leading up to this, T-Mobile had acquired Sprint (2020). It has rolled out the first nationwide 5G SA network. Adding to the resume, T-Mobile—with Cisco as a key partner—also launched the world’s largest cloud-native converged network, accommodating both 4G and 5G features.
As pointed out in ABI Research’s 5G Standalone: Market Trends and Vendor Profiles report, a trending use case for 5G SA is Quality of Service (QoS) management. From the perspective of a North American operator, this means realizing the potential of network slicing. T-Mobile’s Quality-On-Demand (QoD) Application Programming Interface (API) is one answer to the demand for slicing capabilities. Network slicing is a crucial technology for business customers because it enables tailoring network resources to the requirements of a specific use case. For example, T-Mobile made a pivotal move in 2023 when it launched the first nationwide 5G network slicing beta program for video calling applications. The program epitomizes T-Mobile’s pioneering role in the telecommunications industry, always pushing the innovation envelope through strategic partnerships and technological leaps.
The company has consistently improved upon its existing 5G SA services and is engaged with major brands across the United States.
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Noteworthy Milestones for T-Mobile
Since its launch of 5G SA in 2020, T-Mobile has demonstrated the superiority of its network through record-breaking performance several times. Three noteworthy milestones on the technology front include:
- Achieving download speeds up to 3 Gigabits per Second (Gbps) by aggregating four 5G SA channels in sub-6 Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum within the live network.
- Achieving up to 3 Gbps by aggregating eight 5G SA channels of mmWave using 24 – 71 GHz spectrum.
- Achieving a record-breaking 345 Megabits per Second (Mbps) uplink speed for mobile devices under sub-6 GHz spectrum. This was done by leveraging Uplink Transmit (UL Tx).
T-Mobile has stood out as an early industry leader for 5G SA, attracting both customers and Tier One competitors. New commercialization opportunities arise as the low-band spectrum enhances network coverage and reliability, while also unlocking Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) use cases in crowded venues.
Slicing Up Large-Scale Outdoor Networks
T-Mobile’s 5G SA-enabled slicing services are being used by businesses to enhance the mobile experience in dense, outdoor environments. Three notable examples include supporting emergency services in the LA wildfires, a Formula 1 (F1) race in Las Vegas, and a cliff-diving event sponsored by Red Bull in Boston.
- First Response LA Wildfires: T-Mobile was quick to activate its most advanced 5G services to support first responders in battling the wildfires around Los Angeles in 2025. This included a dedicated network slice for 350 firefighters in the Los Angeles Fire Department through its T-Priority service, which allocates up to 5X more network resources than the average user. The service also includes solutions for enhanced security, Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT), and fleet management.
- Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix: In November 2024, the Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix chose T-Mobile to provide 5G connectivity for 300,000 racing fans. Customized slicing solutions allowed fans to engage with the Las Vegas Strip Circuit™ 360° Track View, a mobile app that gives users a driver’s-eye view of an F1 vehicle in motion. T-Mobile’s 5G SA services were also instrumental in facilitating seamless transactions at the 230 point-of-sale devices used by food vendors and merchandise vendors.
- Red Bull Cliff Diving Event: T-Mobile’s 5G SA services were also adopted at a high diving event sponsored by Red Bull back in the summer of 2023. This was the first time network slicing was used for video production on a commercial network in the United States. By using a customized sliced network, the broadcasting team could separate video production from general traffic for 20,000 attendees at the event in Boston. The 5G SA solution ensures that the production team could seamlessly transfer and receive high-resolution videos shot from aerial drones. Without this slicing feature, network traffic from attendees uploading pictures and videos of the event would have interfered with the production team’s efforts.
T-Mobile US is one of the most influential operators in the lucrative U.S. telecom market. As the company aims to expand its subscriber base, especially in the enterprise domain, 5G SA will play an invaluable role. All roads to 5G evolution run through SA cores, as it unlocks future-proof applications like network slicing. The F1 and Red Bull cliff-diving events are just two early case studies for T-Mobile to highlight in its marketing outreach. Undoubtedly, the success of these deployments will attract other organizations and help social proof its 5G SA solutions going forward.
For more content on T-Mobile, check out the latest ABI Research deliverables the company is featured in.
