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T-Mobile's LAA Creates Screaming Fast Speeds in NYC

Piping LTE over new channels results in download speeds over 500Mbps in our testing.

By Sascha Segan
March 5, 2018
T-Mobile LAA Cell Site

T-Mobile is now boosting LTE download speeds to over 500Mbps by using Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) in New York City, according to Milan Milanovic, Technical Evangelist for Ookla.

This is the first time we've actually been able to see and test commercial LAA in the US. The technology, which we've heard a lot about for a year now, pipes 4G LTE signals over unused 5GHz Wi-Fi channels to widen a carrier's available bandwidth. For carriers other than Sprint, LAA will be critical to achieving gigabit LTE speeds, because they don't have enough contiguous licensed spectrum to achieve those speeds.

Wireless carriers hate referring to these channels as Wi-Fi spectrum, because it implies that Wi-Fi has preferred usage of the 5GHz band when it's actually open to everyone. But Wi-Fi is the predominant use for it right now.

AT&T is working with LAA in Indianapolis and Austin, and Verizon is probably "deploying but being stealthy," Milanovic said.

At a cell site at 45th St. and Third Avenue in Manhattan, T-Mobile is combining 20MHz of its Band 4 spectrum with 60MHz of LAA spectrum. Phones connect to the cell site and send data up using the 1700MHz/2100Mhz Band 4 spectrum, and then get downloaded data via a combination of Band 4 and LAA.

T-Mobile LAA Test Results

Those speeds are insane. In 13 tests, we got an average of 503Mbps down and 42.7Mbps up. Just to compare, in Ookla's Speedtest Intelligence database, the top 10 percent of T-Mobile download speeds in that ZIP code are only around 70Mbps down.

LAA-capable phones can get up to ten 100Mbps download streams on this cell site, with four on the licensed spectrum (4x4 MIMO) and two on each of three channels of LAA spectrum, Milanovic said.

Other users on this cell site will do well, but not as well as LAA users, Milanovic notes. The site is also equipped with T-Mobile's workhorse Band 2 and the low-frequency Band 12, which penetrates inside buildings.

LAA is only a solution for dense urban areas, though. This cell site has a coverage diameter of about four blocks (a bit over 1,000 feet), which is considered pretty good for LAA. That's a little better than what the coverage probably would be if the site was sending down 5GHz Wi-Fi, and it's a little better than New York's LinkNYC public Wi-Fi posts.

A nearby LinkNYC post doesn't appear to be interfering with the T-Mobile signal, Milanovic said. That's good news, because one of the concerns about LAA is whether or not it will coexist well with powerful public Wi-Fi.

You'll need the right phone to hit these speeds, and that's not an iPhone. Currently, LAA is supported by T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy S8, Note 8, Galaxy S8 Active, Galaxy S9/S9+, LG V30, and the unlocked Huawei Mate 10 Pro ($370.00 at Amazon) . We'll make sure to test LAA when we go on the road with our Fastest Mobile Networks drive tests this spring.

Disclosure: Ookla and PCMag share a parent company, Ziff Davis.

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About Sascha Segan

Lead Analyst, Mobile

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I've reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also write a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsess about phones and networks.

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