T-Mobile is claiming a world first with Nokia: The two companies just completed a 5G data transmission on T-Mobile’s 600 MHz commercial network.

T-Mobile and Nokia engineers completed the downlink transmission tests using global 5G standards in Spokane, Washington. The “uncarrier” says the tests prove that low-band airwaves will provide 5G coverage across hundreds of square miles from a single tower, which stands in contrast to millimeter wave sites that cover less than a square mile.

Rivals Verizon and AT&T are using millimeter wave spectrum for their early fixed and mobileversions of 5G, but it's pretty well understood that 5G will use low-, mid- and high-band spectrum.

Still, T-Mobile likes to remind everyone that low-band spectrum is key to building a nationwide 5G network, as it reaches farther than other frequencies. Of course, its 5G network will be even better if the merger with Sprint goes through; then it will be able to use all that 2.5 GHz midband spectrum that Sprint hasn’t fully built out.