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In an announcement on Tuesday, T-Mobile said it had launched the world’s first standalone 5G network. It even celebrated the landmark with drone-powered light display.

To celebrate the milestone and the arrival of 5G for the first time in hundreds of small towns across America, T-Mobile used drones to light up the sky over Lisbon, ND, letting people in the small town know “5G is here”. The Un-carrier plans similar celebrations in the future… “Since Sprint became part of T-Mobile, we’ve been rapidly combining networks for a supercharged Un-carrier while expanding our nationwide 5G footprint, and today we take a massive step into the future with standalone 5G architecture,” said Neville Ray, President of Technology at T-Mobile. “This is where it gets interesting, opening the door for massive innovation in this country — and while the other guys continue to play catch up, we’ll keep growing the world’s most advanced 5G network.”

T-Mobile and Sprint could complete their merger sooner than perhaps expected. The firms are aiming to finalize the deal by April 1, 2020, MacRumors reported.

T-Mobile and Sprint are aiming to finish their merger by April 1 now that all legal issues have been resolved and regulatory approval has been granted, the two companies announced today. In a press release, Sprint and T-Mobile announced an amended business combination agreement that has been approved by the Boards of Directors of T-Mobile and Sprint. Under the terms of the amendment, T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom will get a slightly higher ownership stake in the new company.

The proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger got the go-ahead on Tuesday, Yahoo Finance/Reuters reported. A judge approved the deal, rejecting antitrust concerns raised by some states.

During a two-week trial in December, T-Mobile and Sprint argued the merger will better equip the new company to compete with top players Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc, creating a more efficient company with low prices and faster internet speeds. The states, led by California and New York, had said the deal would reduce competition, leading to higher prices. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero clears the path for the deal, which already has federal approval and was originally valued at $26 billion.

T-Mobile turned on the U.S.’s first-ever nationwide 5G Network this week. Venturebeat gave it a test-drive.

Thankfully, my initial testing of T-Mobile’s low-band 5G network revealed a more complex reality than the company’s conservative figure. The good news is that low-band 5G downloads peaked at 227Mbps, 2-4 times faster than T-Mobile’s LTE service at the same locations, and far higher than the aforementioned 20% estimate. But the bad news is that you won’t always achieve the peak speeds, and — surprise — early T-Mobile 5G phone adopters can’t actually use 5G for tethering, only smartphone service.