MHz to GHz Converter for 5G NR and LTE Band Plans

Matching 3GPP Band Tables to the Gigahertz Labels on a Site Plan

A cell site engineer lives between two documents that never use the same unit. TS 38.101 defines n78 as 3300–3800 MHz. The lease, the coverage map and the antenna datasheet all call that same spectrum "3.5 GHz". Neither is wrong, but a design review where one slide says 3700 and the next says 3.7 is a careless glance away from a mistake. This page keeps both notations visible at once.

MHz → GHz: divide by 1 000. The 3300–3800 MHz span of n78 is 3.3–3.8 GHz, a carrier of 100 MHz is 0.1 GHz, and the "3.5 GHz" label is a rounded nickname for the whole 500 MHz block.

Two Units, Two Audiences

The Standard Never Says 3.5

3GPP band tables list every uplink and downlink limit as a whole number of megahertz, because channel raster, guard bands and carrier widths are all megahertz-scale quantities. Writing 3.3 instead of 3300 buys nothing and loses resolution.

FR1 Stops at 7125 MHz

Frequency Range 1 covers 410–7125 MHz and Frequency Range 2 starts at 24250 MHz. That gap is why "sub-6" survives as shorthand even though the boundary has crept past 6 GHz — the label stuck before the range grew.

Duplex Spacing Stays Megahertz

An FDD pair is defined by the distance between its uplink and downlink blocks: 190 MHz on n1, 95 MHz on n3, 55 MHz on n28. Nobody converts those to gigahertz, because the useful figures are the differences, not the absolute positions.

Turning a Band Table Row Into a Site Document Figure

Enter the limit from the standard

Type the megahertz figure as the band table prints it — 3300, 3800, 2496, 24250. Nothing needs stripping first: a value pasted as 24 250 with a thousands space is read as 24250.

Read the gigahertz figure for the plan

The second field updates on every keystroke, so you can run both ends of a band through in a few seconds and get the pair that belongs on a coverage map or a spectrum-holdings slide.

Convert the carrier width the same way

Channel bandwidths are quoted in megahertz too — 20, 40, 60, 100. Running the width through alongside the edges shows immediately how many carriers a block will hold and where the guard bands land.

Copy the bare value into the document

The copy button on each field yields the number with no unit and no spaces, which drops cleanly into a planning spreadsheet cell, a parameter file, or a field in the RF datafill.

Working backwards from a marketing label: a vendor quoting "3.7 GHz" needs to become 3700 before it can be matched to a band table row. Use the swap arrows, or type the gigahertz figure into the right-hand field and read the megahertz value on the left.

Low Band, Mid Band and Millimetre Wave in Both Notations

The rows below are the operating bands most site work touches, with the ranges exactly as the standard defines them and the gigahertz form the rest of the paperwork uses. FDD entries show the uplink and downlink blocks that make up the pair.

3GPP band	Duplex	Defined range (MHz)	Same range (GHz)	Usual label
n71	FDD	663–698 up, 617–652 down	0.663–0.698 / 0.617–0.652	600 MHz low band
n28	FDD	703–748 up, 758–803 down	0.703–0.748 / 0.758–0.803	700 MHz coverage layer
n8	FDD	880–915 up, 925–960 down	0.880–0.915 / 0.925–0.960	900 MHz
n3	FDD	1710–1785 up, 1805–1880 down	1.710–1.785 / 1.805–1.880	1800 MHz
n1	FDD	1920–1980 up, 2110–2170 down	1.920–1.980 / 2.110–2.170	2100 MHz
n41	TDD	2496–2690	2.496–2.690	2.5 GHz
n78	TDD	3300–3800	3.300–3.800	3.5 GHz C-band
n77	TDD	3300–4200	3.300–4.200	Extended C-band
n79	TDD	4400–5000	4.400–5.000	4.5 GHz
n258	TDD	24250–27500	24.250–27.500	26 GHz millimetre wave
n261	TDD	27500–28350	27.500–28.350	28 GHz millimetre wave
n260	TDD	37000–40000	37.000–40.000	39 GHz millimetre wave

Band Limits Entered Exactly as Specified

Whole-megahertz figures from a 3GPP table go in untouched, thousands spaces and all, so no digit is lost between the specification and the site drawing.

Carrier Widths Checked in the Same Pass

A 100 MHz channel and a 500 MHz block are easier to reconcile once both appear in the notation the audience for the slide expects.

Marketing Labels Traced Back to Band Numbers

Enter a gigahertz figure from a vendor deck on the right and the megahertz value appears on the left, ready to look up in the operating band table.

Questions From the Radio Planning Desk

Where is the line between low band, mid band and high band?

The split is commercial shorthand rather than a clause in the standard, but the industry uses it consistently. Low band is everything under about 1000 MHz — n71, n28, n8 — covering kilometres and penetrating buildings, yet only tens of megahertz wide. Mid band runs roughly 1 to 6 GHz and carries the capacity layer, with n78's 500 MHz doing most of the work. High band means the FR2 allocations from 24250 MHz upward, where gigahertz of spectrum buys throughput over a very short reach.

Why is n78 marketed as 3.5 GHz when it spans 3300 to 3800 MHz?

3.5 GHz is the midpoint of the block rounded to one decimal — the arithmetic centre is 3550 MHz — and it gives every regulator, operator and handset vendor one short phrase for spectrum that is licensed in different slices in different countries. An operator holding 3700–3800 MHz and one holding 3400–3500 MHz both say "3.5 GHz" in public and quote their real edges in megahertz in the licence. Treat the label as a band name, never as a frequency.

What separates sub-6 spectrum from millimetre wave in the specification?

The formal division is FR1 against FR2. FR1 is defined as 410–7125 MHz, FR2 as 24250–71000 MHz, and the two differ in far more than frequency: subcarrier spacing, channel bandwidths and beam management all change. "Sub-6" predates the FR1 ceiling being raised past 6 GHz, so the nickname is now slightly inaccurate but too entrenched to shift. If a document mixes the terms, trust the FR number.

How do I read the duplex spacing of an FDD band from its two ranges?

Subtract the uplink start from the downlink start and keep the answer in megahertz. On n1 that is 2110 minus 1920, giving 190 MHz; on n3 it is 1805 minus 1710, or 95 MHz; on n28 it is 758 minus 703, or 55 MHz. The figure matters because the duplex filter in every handset and radio unit is built around it, and because n71 has its downlink below its uplink — a reversed pairing that catches people out when they assume the smaller number is always the uplink.

What changes on paper when an LTE band is refarmed to NR?

Usually the band number and almost nothing else. LTE band 3 and NR band n3 occupy the identical 1710–1785 and 1805–1880 MHz ranges, so refarming is a matter of deciding how much each technology gets and where the boundary sits — often in steps of 5 or 10 MHz as traffic shifts. Dynamic spectrum sharing removes the boundary and lets both use the same carrier. Every one of those decisions is a handful of megahertz, which a figure rounded to gigahertz cannot express.