As of Friday all four major U.S. mobile carriers will offer the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. T-Mobile will release the device in select cities Friday, giving consumers in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and New York access to its currently available 5G network.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G will sell for $549.99 down and $31.25 per month for 24 months under T-Mobile’s equipment installment plan. The device is $1299.99 at its full retail price. Currently, the carrier has no plans to increase its prices and claims it will not increase service prices for at least the first three years of its 5G network.
While many have resigned that the U.S. rollout for 5G will likely be a long and unpredictable process, several carriers are heavily advertising the number of cities where customers may be able to find 5G. However, actual coverage has proven spotty even in the locations that have been advertised.
T-Mobile has noted coverage maps for the exact locations in their current cities where users will be able to find 5G. For example, in New York City 5G coverage it will be concentrated in the Downtown area of Brooklyn, and more sporadically so in Dumbo, the Navy Yard. In Manhattan, users will be able to find the best 5G connections in the Lower East Side and Financial District, then spreading across Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and Midtown, before becoming more sparse in the Upper East and West Sides.
Even while T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint remains in limbo, the network’s CEO, John Legere maintains that the combination of spectrum from both carriers could create the largest 5G network in the U.S., providing coverage for most of the country. T-Mobile is running 5G on its own millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum, which will go live Friday. Sprint’s network runs on its Massive MIMO technology. Among many preliminary 5G speed tests, Sprint has demonstrated some of the fastest and most reliable 5G speeds. With T-Mobile now enabling its network, further tests will be needed to determine which major U.S. carrier has the fastest 5G speeds.
Sprint’s 5G network is currently available in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Kansas City, and will soon deploy 5G to Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, and Washington D.C. The carrier released its Samsung Galaxy S10 5G model on June 21.
