T-Mobile expanded 5G coverage to hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania residents, covering nearly 99% of the state.
Since 2021, T-Mobile built 700 new 5G towers and upgraded service across 37,000 square miles of Pennsylvania.
The upgrades are part of T-Mobile’s broader efforts to improve its network. Once a struggling fourth-place service, the company has surged to No. 2 behind Verizon by quickly upgrading its network with 5G service and bulking up through the acquisition of Sprint. By enhancing data speeds, residents in suburban and rural areas could see better performance when downloading videos and music with lower latency and reliable connections.
“Pennsylvanians are experiencing notable enhancements in wireless infrastructure, thanks to collaborative partnerships with local and state agencies and entities,” said Edwige A. Robinson, senior vice president of field engineering at T-Mobile.
Rural areas often have spotty coverage or even lack any at all. T-Mobile said it is deploying its 5G reach to more Americans, prioritizing rural residents. Since March, the company has invested $304 million in more than 7,000 county-based 2.5 GHz spectrum licenses, mostly in rural areas.
Over one-third of the 40 million U.S. households under T-Mobile’s 5G umbrella are in rural locations.
“The recent expansion of our 5G network across the state allows us to deliver enhanced wireless capabilities to individuals, families, and businesses, furthering our commitment to improving the customer experience,” said Robinson.
Independent speed tests by Ookla and Opensignal deemed T-Mobile the network with the highest download speeds in the state. Ookla’s speed test showed T-Mobile has a median download speed of 164.76 Mbps. Opensignal’s test ranked T-Mobile as the fastest overall download and upload rate of all U.S. providers.
Pennsylvania counties covered by the additional 5G capacity include:
- Adams
- Armstrong
- Beaver
- Berks
- Bradford
- Bucks
- Chester
- Clarion
- Cumberland
- Dauphin
- Fayette
- Franklin
- Greene
- Indiana
- Jefferson
- Juniata
- Lawrence
- Lehigh
- Luzerne
- McKean
- Mifflin
- Montgomery
- Northampton
- Northumberland
- Pike
- Snyder
- Sullivan
- Tioga
- Venango
- Wyoming
- York
Between 2022 and 2023, T-Mobile opened more retail locations in smaller communities and rural towns across Pennsylvania. The company plans to add to its 240 existing stores throughout 2023 and 2024.