T-Mobile US Seeks FCC Permission For LTE-A Network Trial

T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE:T) recently requested for Special Temporary Authority (STA) from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to test pre-commercial LTE Advanced (LTE-A) in El Paso, Texas, and Augusta, Georgia. The third-largest wireless operator in the United States will conduct LTE-A trial runs using multiple spectrum bands, 700 MHz, PCS and AWS spectrum licensed to T-Mobile US as well as AWS-3 spectrum that is held by the FCC.

In the Augusta and El Paso markets, the company will use the base stations of Nokia (HE:NOKIA) Corp. (NYSE:NOK) and Ericsson (BS:ERICAs) AB (NASDAQ:ERIC) , respectively. T-Mobile US plans to transmit data using 2155-2160 MHz and 1755-1760 MHz bands in El Paso, and 2165-2170 MHz and 1765-1770 MHz bands in Augusta. The LTE-Advanced network is likely to raise the data packet transmission speed by more than 50%.

Notably, in March 2014, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) became the first wireless operator in the United States to launch LTE-A services in Chicago. In August 2016, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) completed a major upgrade of its 4G LTE networks to LTE-A technology covering 461 cities in the United States. Verizon claimed that its two-channel carrier aggregation generates peak download speeds of up to 225 Mbps while three-channel carrier aggregation has clocked speeds of more than 300 Mbps.

Wireless network standards are continuously evolving globally to offer faster speed. After significant growth of the next-generation 4G LTE network, LTE-A wireless network standard is gradually finding a solid foothold worldwide. LTE-A is the more powerful version of the legacy LTE network offering increased speed and network capacity. Carrier aggregation is the most important part of LTE-A technology as it allows wireless operators to create large spectrum assets by combining different frequency bands.

Price Performance of T-Mobile US

T-Mobile US’ shares have increased 2.65%, a shade better than the industry’s gain of 2.55% over the past 90 days. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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