C Spire Rolls Out Real 5G Speeds in Six Northeast Mississippi Counties

Band 41 spectrum added to 32 cell sites in six cities to deliver faster connections

Consumers and businesses in parts of the C Spire wireless service area in Northeast Mississippi are experiencing 5G-eqivalent speeds up to 200 Mbps as the company works to promptly deliver faster mobile broadband connections.

The work in Clay, Lafayette, Lee, Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Winston counties is part of larger multi-million-dollar network enhancements that include the deployment of additional Band 41 carriers with carrier aggregation, increased cell site antenna capacity using advanced features like 12-layer MIMO, improvements in spectral efficiency (256 QAM) and overall network optimization for balanced data delivery.

C Spire, a Mississippi-based telecommunications and technology services company, operates the nation’s largest privately-owned mobile services firm and sixth largest in the U.S. industry. The comprehensive program is part of the firm’s broader efforts to bring consumers and businesses real 5G speeds now rather than several years in the future.

“We’re delivering real 5G speeds, better service and an improved customer experience today through widespread use – almost 10,000 route miles - of some of the world’s most advanced technology – fiber optic infrastructure,” said Brian Caraway, general manager of C Spire’s wireless division.

Caraway said the latest efforts involve C Spire’s deployment of additional high-frequency Band 41 spectrum, which supports the higher mobile broadband speeds, at 172 cell sites strategically located in 40 cities and 31 Mississippi counties in the Magnolia state.

The initial phase, completed in 2019, also will usher in Voice over LTE or high-definition mobile voice service with simultaneous voice and data and pave the way for other improvements, including carrier aggregation. C Spire is continuing to boost speeds at more cell sites in 2020.

Caraway said the Band 41 roll out comes on the heels of a 10-month project last year to deploy more spectrum and add capacity to nearly one of every five cell sites in the C Spire network, targeting 252 cell sites in 41 counties for the enhancements and improving capacity and speed for thousands of customers.

The company also installed new base stations and software at its 1,200-plus cell sites last year, resulting in a 20 percent average speed boost across the network.

Northeast Mississippi cell sites that received the Band 41 spectrum and now offer 5G speeds include:
•Nine cell sites in Oktibbeha County (all in Starkville)
•Four cell sites in Lowndes County (all in Columbus)
•Four cell sites in Clay County (all in West Point)
•Nine cell sites in Lafayette County (all in Oxford)
•Four cell sites in Lee County (four in Tupelo)
•Two cell sites in Winston County (both in Louisville)

C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data and cloud services for businesses.