T-Mobile’s Ray updates his 5G ‘layer cake’ analogy one last time

Roughly five years after first debuting the concept of a “layer cake” (depicted in the above graphic) to explain T-Mobile’s 5G strategy, the operator’s top networking executive added one last tweak to the concept this week.

And, not surprisingly, he did so to highlight his company’s 5G progress against its competitors AT&T and Verizon.

“What you really want is a slice all the way through the cake,” said T-Mobile’s Neville Ray in comments this week at an investor conference.

Specifically, Ray explained that T-Mobile’s latest announcement of achieving a four-carrier aggregation data call on its network is the technological equivalent of cutting a slice out of a layered cake. Meaning, carrier aggregation technology essentially glues together transmissions in disparate spectrum bands in the same way a slice of a cake combines multiple layers.

Slicing and dicing

“The richness of the feature set that we bring is second to none,” Ray said.

During the recent MWC trade show in Barcelona, Spain, Ray announced that T-Mobile’s standalone (SA) 5G network was able to support 3.3 Gbit/s speeds by using carrier aggregation technology that combined transmissions in four of its spectrum bands: two in the 2.5GHz range and two in the 1900MHz range. In total, the transmission glued together a total of almost 225MHz of spectrum across the four different bands.

“That’s like taking four separate highways and turning them into a massive superhighway where traffic can zoom faster than before. Customers with the Samsung Galaxy S23 will be among the first to experience four-carrier aggregation later this year with more devices to follow,” the company wrote in a release.

Carrier aggregation technology was first introduced in 4G networks, though few operators have applied it to early 5G networks. More will likely do so in the months and years ahead.

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