T-Mobile announced it achieved "record-breaking" uplink speeds of 345 Mbps on its 5G standalone network in a recent test leveraging a feature called UL Tx switching. It's the fastest recorded in North America using sub-6 GHz spectrum, according to the annnouncement. UL Tx switching effectively creates more uplink capacity and higher uplink speed.
This test combined carrier aggregation (combining different channels of spectrum for more capacity and speed) and SU-MIMO (single user multiple input, multiple output) to deliver uplink speeds 25% faster than the company's previous record of 275 Mbps. The test used equipment from Nokia’s AirScale portfolio and a mobile test smartphone with a flagship Snapdragon® Modem-RF system from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
“This achievement is a testament to our relentless pursuit of innovation and our commitment to delivering an even better network experience to our customers,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, President of Technology at T-Mobile. “Uplink transmit switching has the potential to significantly boost upload speeds and capacity, and we implore our partners around the globe to build the capability into the 5G ecosystem moving forward.”
In the announcement, T-Mobile’s said it "has only begun scratching the surface when it comes to uploads." Greater uplink speeds are critical for customers when it comes to content creation and sharing, remote work and collaboration, gaming, and some emerging technologies.