5G Bands




During mobile networks evolution a set of mobile services that are provided to subscribers becomes wider and wider and also this evolution is pushing user experience to new higher levels (e.g. higher data rates, lower latency). Initially mobile networks occupied primary frequencies around 900 MHz. 3G (the third generation of mobile networks) introduction was mostly about 2 GHz band to get new frequencies and to be able to build wider channels. So typically once a new mobile networks generation appears there are new frequency bands defined. However over time frequencies allocated to previous mobile generations are used for new generations as well (usually it's called as frequency refarming and a possibility to move bands from one technology to another depends on local rules defined by local regulatory body). New bands are added not only with an introduction of a new generation but continuously. For example LTE bands defined in the first 3GPP specification (aka LTE Release 8) were between 700 MHz and 2.4 GHz. Then it was extended and now (2019) it includes frequencies from 450 MHz up to 6 GHz (more details on LTE bands).

While low frequencies are mostly occupied by previous generations they are important for 5G to provide wide area coverage and also indoor coverage. So some parts of these frequencies will be used for 5G services either solely or jointly with another technologies (e.g. with LTE via Spectrum Sharing features). However just low frequencies are not enough for 5G as channel bandwidth at this band is quite narrow (not wider than 20 MHz). To build wider channels higher frequencies are needed and currently one of primary world wide band for 5G is 3 - 6 GHz. Within this band wider channel bandwidth up to 100 MHz or even higher is possible as frequency chunks assigned per operator is wider comparing to low frequency band. This band has quite good balance between coverage and capacity. However to meet extreme 5G requirements new bands are needed. And these bands are defined at high frequency range above 24 GHz also called as mmWave. There are much more free frequencies that can be occupied by 5G and channel bandwidth can be very wide like 400 MHz or even higher. This band has quite poor propagation so these frequencies are not used for coverage while it's used to provide very high data rates on very limited geographical area.

There are two Frequency Ranges (FR) defined for 5G by 3GPP specifications.

Frequency Range designation Corresponding frequency range, MHz
FR1 450 - 6000
FR2 24250 - 52600


5G Bands

Bands defined by 3GPP for 5G usage are listed below.

5G Operating Band Uplink (UL) Operating Band, MHz Downlink (DL) Operating Band, MHz Duplex Mode
n1 1920 - 1980 2110 - 2170 FDD
n2 1850 - 1910 1930 - 1990 FDD
n3 1710 - 1785 1805 - 1880 FDD
n5 824 - 849 869 - 894 FDD
n7 2500 - 2570 2620 - 2690 FDD
n8 880 - 915 925 - 960 FDD
n12 699 - 716 729 - 746 FDD
n20 832 - 862 791 - 821 FDD
n25 1850 - 1915 1930 - 1995 FDD
n28 703 - 748 758 - 803 FDD
n34 2010 - 2025 2010 - 2025 TDD
n38 2570 - 2620 2570 - 2620 TDD
n39 1880 - 1920 1880 - 1920 TDD
n40 2300 - 2400 2300 - 2400 TDD
n41 2496 - 2690 2496 - 2690 TDD
n50 1432 - 1517 1432 - 1517 TDD
n51 1427 - 1432 1427 - 1432 TDD
n65 1920 - 2010 2110 - 2200 FDD
n66 1710 - 1780 2110 - 2200 FDD
n70 1695 - 1710 1995 - 2020 FDD
n71 663 - 698 617 - 652 FDD
n74 1427 - 1470 1475 - 1518 FDD
n75 N/A 1432 - 1517 SDL
n76 N/A 1427 - 1432 SDL
n77 3300 - 4200 3300 - 4200 TDD
n78 3300 - 3800 3300 - 3800 TDD
n79 4400 - 5000 4400 - 5000 TDD
n80 1710 - 1785 N/A SUL
n81 880 - 915 N/A SUL
n82 832 - 862 N/A SUL
n83 703 - 748 N/A SUL
n84 1920 - 1980 N/A SUL
n86 1710 - 1780 N/A SUL
n257 26500 - 29500 26500 - 29500 TDD
n258 24250 - 27500 24250 - 27500 TDD
n260 37000 - 40000 37000 - 40000 TDD
n261 27500 - 28350 27500 - 28350 TDD


,where SDL - Supplementary Downlink, i.e. additional frequencies that can be used for DL transmissions и SUL - Supplementary Uplink, i.e. additional frequencies that can be used for UL transmissions. These frequencies are utilized to boost data rates and enabled via Carrier Aggregation feature.

Further details can be found in 3GPP TS 38.104 "Base Station (BS) radio transmission and reception".





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