T-Mobile will launch its nationwide 5G network next month

T-Mobile has plenty to think about right now, but that didn't stop it from making a big announcement.

After a trial period in cities including New York City, T-Mobile announced Thursday that its nationwide 5G network will launch on Dec. 6. It'll blanket more than 5,000 cities with faster mobile internet for owners of either the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G or OnePlus 7T Pro 5G phones at launch.

Specific details beyond that (such as plan pricing) were scarce during Thursday's announcement, but the point remains: significant portions of the United States should get T-Mobile 5G soon. Without getting too deep into technical weeds here, this network will use a 600MHz band spectrum rather than the millimeter wave 5G deployed in the trial period.

In other words, it might not reach the top speeds of the previous T-Mobile 5G network, but it'll cover more space and, ideally, have broader range and be better at penetrating buildings.

One other interesting angle here is that T-Mobile's 5G network will theoretically merge with another major 5G network soon. T-Mobile and Sprint have been trying to push a merger through all the necessary legal doorways since last year, finally winning FCC approval earlier this week. That said, there's still a lawsuit from several state attorneys general that needs to be resolved before the merger can become official.

Sprint already has a functioning 5G network in some cities around the U.S., including Mashable's home of NYC. I spent some time this summer testing it out and found it to be a work in progress. The merger of T-Mobile and Sprint might help improve 5G coverage, but as for prices ... well, monopolies are frowned on for a reason.