After giving us an update on the progress of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger last week, T-Mo CEO John Legere today published another blog post regarding the merger.

The focus of Legere’s latest post is 5G and how the T-Mobile-Sprint merger will affect 5G availability in the U.S. The CEO says that if T-Mobile and Sprint merge, the combined New T-Mobile will have eight times more total network capacity than T-Mo and Sprint do today, with 400MHz+ total spectrum for customers on average nationwide. The resulting 5G network will be around 15 times faster in 2024 than T-Mobile’s network is today, Legere claims, with nationwide average download speeds of approximately 450Mbps.

Legere also touches on rural connectivity in his latest blog post. The T-Mobile CEO claims that the New T-Mobile will offer increased outdoor wireless coverage to 59.4 million rural residents by 2024, which is 95.8 percent of the estimated 62 million rural residents. The combined carrier will offer average speeds greater than 100Mbps to 66 percent of Americans by 2021, with that number expected to grow to 90 percent by 2024.

T-Mobile has previously said that it plans to offer in-home broadband, and Legere talked a bit more about that in his blog post as well. He says that the New T-Mobile will offer in-home broadband service of at least 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up to 52.2 million rural residents over 2.4 million square miles.

5G is a major focus of T-Mobile and Sprint’s efforts to get their merger approved by regulators. The two carriers have said that they must merge to help the U.S. compete with countries like China in 5G. Legere also said today that “only the New T-Mobile will have the spectrum, network assets, and scale to light up the country’s first truly nationwide, broad, and deep 5G network across all types of radio spectrum”.

Some opponents of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger say that the two carriers will deploy 5G networks even if they aren’t allowed to merge. Legere argues that New T-Mobile will offer a “truly transformational improvement for nearly all consumers nationwide”, though, rather than an “incremental improvement for some people in some areas”.

The T-Mobile-Sprint merger is still being reviewed by both the FCC and DoJ. The two carriers expect the deal to get approval in the first half of 2019.

Source: T-Mobile