Google’s monthly update on Monday mainly addressed the Pixel 4a 5G edge touch recognition issues. However, the February security patch also added support for T-Mobile Standalone (SA) 5G on that phone and on Pixel 5.
When deploying 5G, operators took advantage of their existing LTE networks to help accelerate deployment. This approach to non-autonomous network architecture (NSA), in the case of T-Mobile, saw 600 MHz 5G combined with and dependent on mid-band LTE. Access to the last network is necessary to obtain the first. As such, the “5G signal only goes up to mid-band LTE”, thus neutralizing an advantage of the new technology.
With the launch of autonomous architecture (SA), 5G can exist without and operate independently from LTE. The signals can travel further, which allows better penetration into the interior / building. In its August 2020 enablement announcement for this network, T-Mobile says it “immediately increased its 5G footprint by 30 percent”, thereby assisting latency and eventually – but not currently – speeds.
In SA areas, T-Mobile engineers have already seen an improvement of up to 40% in latency during testing, and this is just the beginning of what can be done with the Standalone 5G.
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In the January (and earlier) security patch, you could see that the NSA was in use by going to Settings> About phone> SIM status> Mobile data network type.
After this month’s update, many found SA 5G where they would normally get NSA. This also extends to Google Fi (as seen in the image on the right), which rents services from T-Mobile.
Like all other connectivity issues, SA 5G depends on the network being built at your location, as well as a compatible SIM card in the case of T-Mobile.
The February patch with standalone support (SA) 5G was not widely implemented on Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G in the USA. Compared to previous months, the “Check for updates” button does not download immediately. It comes with a separate build of T-Mobile / Sprint (RQ1C.210205.006) this month, so those who are sideloading should be aware of this distinction.
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