[Skip to content](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/5g-advanced-in-action-better-experiences-t-mobile-puts-ai-to-work-for-customers#maincontent) [Newsroom](https://www.t-mobile.com/news)Toggle secondary navigation - [Network](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/network) - [Devices](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/devices) - [Un-carrier](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/un-carrier) - [Community](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/community) - [Offers](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/offers) - [Business](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/business) English [NetworkCategory](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/network)[Blog](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/blog) # 5G Advanced in Action, Better Experiences: T‑Mobile Puts AI to Work for Customers October 20, 2026 With Ericsson, T‑Mobile is advancing AI-Managed Beamforming in live network trials Ankur Kapoor | EVP & Chief Network Officer, T‑Mobile [Arrow Right Icon](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/_admin/uploads/2026/10/Magenta-Signal-Over-Manhattan.png) 6 min read - Facebook IconShare on Facebook - Share on Twitter - LinkedIn IconShare on LinkedIn Networks are entering a new era. For most of wireless history, meeting rising demand meant more: more spectrum, more sites, more capacity and, eventually, a new generation. Those things still matter. But the next leap will come from making the network smarter. That is what makes 5G Advanced so important. It is where we can put new intelligence to work today and prove the capabilities that will shape 6G. AI-RAN is a key part of that evolution, bringing AI directly into the radio network so it can learn from real-world conditions, make smarter decisions and adapt in real time. This isn’t a distant vision. We’re building it today, and T‑Mobile is leading the charge. As networks take on distributed AI, robotics, vision systems, and autonomous machines, the ability to sense, learn, and respond becomes essential. T‑Mobile is at the forefront of this evolution, in collaboration with our infrastructure partners to bring AI-driven innovation into real-world networks. As we have said earlier, AI-RAN is a continuum, not a single product. Our north star is to use AI to make our network smarter and more efficient today, delivering tangible benefits for customers while building the foundation for an intelligent, distributed network that can power the next generation of AI applications. And we have made some great movement in this direction. Most recent, with Ericsson through AI-Managed Beamforming, now advancing in large-scale commercial trials using live network traffic. This is another major step in bringing practical AI deeper into the RAN, building on our earlier AI-RAN work with Ericsson, including [AI-Native Link Adaptation](https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/6/2026/t-mobile-ericsson-ai-ran), and continuing the network vision we laid out at [Capital Markets Day in 2024](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/business/t-mobile-launches-ai-ran-innovation-center-with-nvidia): a T‑Mobile network that is not just bigger and faster, but more intelligent, adaptive and ready for the 6G era. __From Floodlight to Spotlight__ Beamforming is one of the technologies that helps a 5G network direct wireless signals more precisely to users and devices. Older wireless networks behaved more like floodlights, casting signals broadly. Beamforming is more like a spotlight, helping the network focus energy where it is needed. AI-Managed Beamforming makes that spotlight smarter. To do that, the network needs a better sense of the radio environment. Phones regularly send brief signals called Sounding Reference Signals, or SRS, that help the network understand the invisible path between a device and the cell site. Think of SRS as a kind of sonar for the network. It helps map how buildings, movement, distance and interference affect the signal. The richer that map, the better the network can decide how to schedule traffic, aim beams, coordinate antennas, manage power and fine-tune each connection. But SRS resources are finite, and historically they have been allocated through fixed rules. AI-Managed Beamforming adds intelligence to that process. Using a supervised-learning model trained on T‑Mobile’s live network data and running directly on Ericsson’s optimized RAN compute and silicon, the capability predicts where demand is rising and dynamically shifts SRS resources where they can have the most impact. The power of AI is its ability to be customized to the environment where it operates. Because T‑Mobile network data is part of the training and tuning process, the model learns from the unique conditions of our network. That gives it an advantage on T‑Mobile’s network compared with networks that don’t contribute their own tuning data. Put simply: the network gets better at listening, learns from the environment where it actually operates, then uses what it learns to make smarter decisions in the moments that matter most. __Where the gains show up__ That matters because wireless networks are being asked to do more than ever. More devices. More data. More video. More gaming. More enterprise applications. More real-time experiences. According to [Ericsson’s June 2026 Mobility Report](https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/mobility-report), global mobile network data traffic grew 22% year over year, with video now making up about 75% of all mobile traffic and 5G subscriptions topping 3.1 billion. And customers increasingly expect the network to keep up without ever thinking about what is happening behind the scenes. Beamforming is particularly powerful in TDD spectrum, where the same spectrum is used for both downlink and uplink. T‑Mobile’s leadership in midband TDD means we are especially well positioned to benefit from AI-Managed Beamforming as it makes the network more precise and adaptive. Across newly activated New York City sites in the AI-Managed Beamforming trials, the strongest gains came during peak hours, when customer demand is highest and the network must adapt quickly. During these high-impact periods, the capability delivered improvements of approximately: - __50% increase in advanced beamforming using full-band SRS__ - __16% improvement in downlink user throughput__ - __12% improvement in spectral efficiency__ - __10% increase in downlink data volume__ Those numbers matter because they point to a network that is becoming more intelligent exactly when customer expectations are highest. What matters is what customers experience. When demand is high, the network can respond more intelligently, putting capacity where it is needed and getting more from the spectrum we already have. The result is better performance when and where customers need it most. __What this means for T‑Mobile’s AI-RAN and 6G leadership__ Ericsson has been an important collaborator in bringing AI-Managed Beamforming into T‑Mobile’s live network, combining its RAN and AI expertise with the scale and real-world demands of our network. “AI is transforming the way networks respond to the people and businesses they serve. Together, Ericsson and T‑Mobile are turning that potential into practical, real-world innovation. Building on our work together in AI-Native Link Adaptation, AI-Managed Beamforming marks another important step toward networks that can respond more intelligently to demand, helping deliver stronger performance, greater efficiency and a more consistent experience, especially when demand is at its highest. Enabled by Ericsson’s silicon and advanced network technologies, this shared progress reflects our commitment to making networks more adaptive, more capable and ready for what comes next,” said Jaco du Plooy, SVP and Head of Customer Unit T‑Mobile with Ericsson Americas. But the bigger story is what we are learning and proving today. 5G Advanced gives us the platform to bring more intelligence into the network now. AI-Managed Beamforming is one example of how we can use AI to make the network more adaptive, use spectrum more efficiently and improve performance based on real-world conditions. That matters because 6G will be about more than a new air interface or another speed milestone. Networks will need to sense, learn and respond as they support increasingly demanding applications, from distributed AI and immersive experiences to robotics, vision AI and other forms of physical AI. We are building those capabilities now. T‑Mobile’s nationwide 5G Advanced network is our proving ground, where AI-native optimization, intelligent resource management and greater programmability can be tested at scale with real customers and real traffic. AI-Managed Beamforming is one step on that path. It is putting AI deeper into the network today while helping us learn what it takes to build the more intelligent, adaptive networks of tomorrow. And through every generation, our measure of progress remains the same: making the network better for customers. 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