T-Mobile officially launched its Ultra Capacity 5G SA network in November last year, touting speeds up to 3Gbps. However, only flagship Samsung smartphones were able to take advantage of the latest network advancement at first with T-Mobile saying that it would “expand to additional devices in the near future.”
Now with iOS 16.4, we’ve seen the toggle arrive in iPhone Settings to enable the super-fast speeds. 5G SA should be enabled by default for T-Mobile customers in the US – the Uncarrier is the only stateside provider for now with 5G SA. Claro and Vivo are also showing 5G SA functionality with iPhone in Brazil. Meanwhile, this flavor of 5G has previously been available on iPhone in other countries.
As a refresher, T-Mobile says its Ultra Capacity 5G SA + carrier aggregation allows it to achieve 3Gbps speeds by merging multiple channels of mid-band 5G spectrum. Also, it’s unclear exactly which cities 5G SA is accessible through T-Mobile for now, so you need to just test it out to see.
How to make sure 5G Standalone (SA) is turned on with iPhone
Only iPhones connected to a carrier with 5G SA will see the option available in Settings
Running iOS 16.4, open the Settings app Choose Cellular Now tap Cellular Data Options then Voice & Data At the bottom, make sure the 5G Standalone toggle is turned on