T-Mobile US will have the nation’s largest and most broad 5G network within a month. The operator today announced it’s “nationwide” 5G network running on 600 MHz spectrum will go live on Dec. 6.

The company is still fighting to push its long-delayed merger with Sprint through, and its 5G deployment will be activated just three days before it goes to trial against a group of state attorneys general that are trying to block the deal. Last week, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said he expects the deal to close in early 2020.

T-Mobile US claims it will be the first domestic operator with a “nationwide” 5G network, but it will only cover up to 200 million people, which is about 61% of the total U.S. population. The network will cover more than 5,000 cities and towns, according to the company.

The 18-month quest to merge with Sprint has given T-Mobile US plenty of time to prepare for the integration of their respective networks, and Legere says the company is preparing to deploy service on Sprint’s 2.5 GHz spectrum soon after closing the merger. The Federal Communications Commission formally approved the merger last month and released its full report on the deal earlier this week.

As executives from both companies have consistently argued, the combination of both operators’ spectrum holding will change the 5G dynamic considerably in terms of speed, capacity, and coverage. T-Mobile’s 5G network on 600 MHz will generate peak speeds of 200 to 300 Mb/s, CTO Neville Ray told CNET last week. That’s roughly 20% of the peak speeds T-Mobile is delivering on its 5G network running on millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum in mostly congested urban areas in six U.S. cities.

Adding 2.5 GHz spectrum from Sprint, which is delivering a more robust coverage area with peak speeds roughly half as great as mmWave spectrum, will enable the combined company to leverage low-, mid-, and high-band spectrum for a more resilient and widespread network, according to T-Mobile.

T-Mobile’s network performance on 600 MHz is lower, in part, because its licenses in that band are more narrow. The spectrum depth of T-Mobile’s 600 MHz licenses range from 11 MHz to 50 MHz. Large swaths of the less densely populated areas of the country are in the 31-40 MHz range, most of Southern California is in the 21-30 MHz range, and most of the Northeast Corridor is in the 11-20 MHz range.

The operator claims its 5G network combined with Sprint will deliver average speeds of 100 Mb/s to 90% of the U.S. population, and it committed to covering 85% of rural American with 5G within three years.

T-Mobile today reiterated its commitment to invest $40 billion on its 5G network and says it expects that network to deliver 14 times more network capacity than it does as a standalone company today. “Only the new T-Mobile’s transformative 5G network will finally have the capacity and reach to make the bold moves we announced today that are squarely aimed at solving inequities that have huge impacts on our society,” Legere said in a prepared statement.

The operator announced a Connecting Heroes Initiative, which it describes as a 10-year commitment to provide free and unlimited 5G access to every first responder across the country. It also unveiled a program that will provide free service and hotspots, including discounted devices, to more than 10 million households through 2025 to help eradicate the homework gap for children. Both offers are contingent on the merger with Sprint.