The T-Mobile merger with Sprint will mean a faster deployment of 5G services across the United States, Neville Ray has said, with the T-Mobile CTO still positive the transaction will be approved.
Speaking with ZDNet in an interview during Mobile World Congress Americas (MWCA) in Los Angeles on Thursday, Ray cited the "compelling" business case of the merger for consumers, society, and 5G advancement.
"The combination of T-Mobile and Sprint can put 5G really on the map in the US marketplace way faster that either company could do on their own, or AT&T and Verizon could do on their own quite frankly," Ray said.
Echoing comments from Sprint executive chair Marcelo Claure on Wednesday at MWCA that the US cannot win the 5G race without the merger[1], Ray said the combination of the two companies would "actually accelerate that push" for 5G.
While T-Mobile is currently focused on the 600MHz spectrum band, and Sprint is rolling out 5G across its 2.5GHz holdings -- while Verizon and AT&T both focus on millimetre-wave (mmWave) spectrum -- Ray said his company also holds spectrum in the 28GHz and 39GHz mmWave bands.
"You can't deliver a broad 5G experience with just millimetre wave; we've talked for much of the last 18 months about a multi-band 5G strategy, so millimetre wave for urban pockets, then mid- and low-band spectrum for everything from faster smartphones services and enhanced mobile broadband to broad coverage for IoT services," he said.
"A big part again of the Sprint transaction is this combination of multi-band spectrum assets that allows us to go after the full spectrum of 5G opportunities and use cases."
Ray is also unfazed by the Federal Communications Commission's