Shortly after Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus devices were unveiled, T-Mobile then announced that the two phablets will be the first handsets to take full advantage of the wireless carrier’s LTE-U service. Over the last few years, the third biggest mobile operator in the United States has been making aggressive efforts to improve its LTE tech, and with recent strategic deployments and network enhancements, it has now put itself in a good position to bring gigabit speeds to Samsung’s newest flagship devices.
Using the Galaxy S8 on T-Mobile’s LTE-U service, mobile users will be able to tap automatically into the first 20 MegaHertz of unutilized and unlicensed spectrum of 5 GigaHertz. What happens is that the LTE-U service will be able to leverage the least used channels and then switch back and forth in order to detect the least congested spectrum.
The result is that the quality of streaming is made faster and significantly more efficient because traffic jams are considerably reduced. On top of all that, T-Mobile also revealed that users will be able to make full use of the AWS-3 spectrum, which according to the major US wireless carrier, is even better and faster.
It was around a couple of years ago when T-Mobile first announced its plans to roll out LTE in 5 GigaHertz bands. For those not in the know, 5 GigaHertz bands are considered by many as the traditional home of Wi-Fi. But the carrier’s plans involve having LTE share the 5 GigaHertz airwaves with Wi-Fi, dynamically transitioning from one channel to another in order to find a clear path for hosting 4G, which functions similarly to how Wi-Fi is currently co-existing with another in the same spectrum.
Anyway, with regards to Samsung’s newest shiny toys, customers of T-Mobile and its prepaid arm MetroPCS can now preorder the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus online by way of T-Mobile’s official website. When preordering for $30 a month on the wireless carrier’s Installment Plan ($30 down; full retail price $750), buyers will get a Gear VR headset, plus controller and Oculus content, free of charge, which is not bad considering this normally costs $180. Customers of MetroPCS also can avail of the same Gear VR offer when they buy the Galaxy S8 on launch date (April 21st).
Browse more T-Mobile deals now from Wirefly. Also, feel free to explore other plans and phones from Samsung.
