Telecom operator T-Mobile has partnered with telecom equipment and software maker Ericsson for its 5G deployments.

Both AT&T and Verizon are well ahead in their 5G strategies.

Ericsson and T-Mobile will continue to maximize the success of LTE and will prepare the network for evolution to 5G by implementing key technology enhancements included in 3GPP Release 13 and beyond.

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“T-Mobile’s LTE network is the most advanced in the US and we’ll continue to deploy the latest, global leading technologies that will create the foundation of a powerful 5G network built for mobility,” said Neville Ray, CTO of T-Mobile.

T-Mobile has already rolled out a nationwide LTE network – enabled in part by the space-saving Antenna-Integrated Radio (AIR) product from Ericsson.

Ericsson says the evolution of AIR technology helped enable T-Mobile’s rapid rollout of 4×4 MIMO and 256 and 64 QAM last year. These technologies doubled peak data speeds, and by using them together with carrier aggregation, T-Mobile will combine its spectrum holdings into one data pipe to enable Gigabit LTE speeds within the year.

T-Mobile will also leverage LTE-U technology to bring Gigabit LTE to more places.

“Our pioneering HD Enhanced Voice service for LTE and Wi-Fi last year improved audio quality and reliability for voice and music within calls. The bar gets higher each time, and we continue to push our own teams to prepare T-Mobile for its journey to 5G,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, chief strategy and technology officer of Ericsson.

Ericsson also provided 700 MHz tuning and optimization services, which enabled T-Mobile to adapt coverage, throughput and capacity to manage data traffic growth while ensuring high-quality service to its customers.