T-Mobile’s 5G Advanced network is now nationwide, but your Pixel can’t use it

5G Advanced is the next evolution of 5G, in the same way that LTE-A was the next evolution of LTE. Now, T-Mobile has announced a key milestone for its own 5G Advanced network.

T-Mobile revealed in a blog post that its 5G Advanced network is now nationwide. The carrier started rolling out a standalone 5G network, which is required for 5G Advanced, in 2020. It subsequently enabled 5G Advanced in 2024.

The vast majority of carriers use non-standalone (NSA) 5G networks, which still use a 4G core for their infrastructure. By contrast, standalone 5G networks have transitioned to a 5G core, enabling this upgraded connectivity experience.

Why should you look forward to 5G Advanced?

5G Advanced is based on the 3GPP Release 18 5G specifications and uses carrier aggregation and other technologies to boost speed and offer other benefits. However, T-Mobile says its take on the technology blends Release 17 and Release 18 features to “unlock smarter performance,” whatever that means.

As for practical benefits, 5G Advanced delivers faster speeds, improved connectivity when the network is congested (e.g. stadiums), and precision-finding technology. T-Mobile also says you can expect lower latency.

It’s also worth noting that 5G Advanced and standalone 5G networks are more efficient than previous 5G technologies. In fact, a MediaTek representative told me back in 2023 that 5G power consumption on standalone networks was “well on par” with 4G at the same data rate, and would actually be lower when more modern processing technologies were taken into account. In other words, you might not have to turn off 5G on your phone on T-Mobile’s new network if you’re worried about battery life.

Not sure if your phone supports 5G Advanced? Your phone’s modem needs to support the 3GPP Release 18 5G standard. Qualcomm notes that the modems inside the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Snapdragon 8 Elite chipsets indeed support the Release 18 standard. This means you should be in luck if you’ve got a phone like the OnePlus 13, Samsung Galaxy S25 series, or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

There is bad news for Pixel owners, though. The Exynos 5400 modem inside the Pixel 9 series doesn’t seem to support the Release 18 standard and, therefore, can’t take advantage of the upgraded 5G network. We can’t rule out the possibility that the Exynos modem unofficially supported Release 18 features before the standard was ratified and, therefore, supports 5G Advanced. However, publicly available material (e.g. Samsung’s Exynos 5400 product page) suggests this isn’t the case.