The incoming CEO of Sprint, Michel Combes, has taken a noticeably optimistic stance on 5G, breaking from a recent industry pattern of cautious expectations.
In recent weeks, several operators and equipment vendors have publicly tempered forecasts for 5G, a conservative approach many consider prudent: better to under-promise and over-deliver than the reverse. However, speaking at J.P. Morgan’s conference, Combes offered a bolder vision. He stated, “We intend within four to five years to reach 450 meg average speed per subscriber,” a striking target compared with today’s typical 4G average of roughly 30 Mbps.
Combes predicts that by 2022–2023, about half of Sprint’s customers could migrate to 5G and experience average speeds approaching the level he outlined — roughly 15 times current averages.
Sprint’s outgoing CEO, Marcelo Claure, has also signaled changes tied to 5G, warning that the network’s improved performance will likely come with higher prices. “It’s going to be very difficult for our competitors to increase the price of unlimited,” Claure said, “but we’re going to have a lot of room to increase our price of unlimited to get to similar prices as Verizon and AT&T in the future.”
Claure expects Sprint’s current roughly $55 monthly unlimited rate for LTE to rise to levels more in line with competitors’ 5G pricing, which today sits around $70–$80 for unlimited plans.
A potential £18.9bn merger between T-Mobile and Sprint is pending regulatory approval. T‑Mobile has adopted a more measured public stance on 5G performance, particularly for initial launches.
5G performance expectations
T‑Mobile projects that its first 5G deployments may deliver speeds roughly 25–50 percent faster than its current 4G averages. OpenSignal’s 2018 State of Mobile Networks report places T‑Mobile’s average 4G speed near 20 Mbps, so a 50 percent uplift would suggest initial 5G averages near 30 Mbps. Those figures reflect nationwide averages that include rural areas; urban performance is generally much higher.
For example, T‑Mobile has demonstrated peak LTE throughput above 500 Mbps using Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA) in parts of New York City — and a 50 percent improvement there would push peak rates toward 750 Mbps.
AT&T and Verizon are taking a different technical approach in many places, focusing on millimeter-wave spectrum to create concentrated, high-capacity hotspots. Millimeter waves can deliver multi-gigabit peak speeds but have shorter range and require denser infrastructure to provide broad coverage.
Verizon’s Chief Network Officer, Nicola Palmer, has noted that gigabit speeds are achievable at considerable distances from a cell when using these higher-frequency bands. T‑Mobile, meanwhile, plans to complement its broad 600 MHz footprint with millimeter-wave deployments over time to raise peak throughput post-launch.
Karri Kuoppamaki, T‑Mobile’s VP of Radio Network Technology, emphasized the evolutionary nature of mobile network performance: “Initially, we didn’t see gigabit speeds on LTE, we saw very low speeds. But today we see much higher than that. It’s kind of irrelevant what [the speed] number is going to be on day one, as it will improve over time.”
Overall, early 5G rollouts will likely produce a mix of moderate nationwide average improvements and much higher peak speeds in targeted urban locations. Pricing strategies are expected to adjust alongside performance gains, with carriers weighing how to monetize faster networks without alienating customers used to current unlimited plans.
What are your thoughts on 5G claims? Let us know in the comments.
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