Ookla's recent Speedtest Connectivity report shows T-Mobile's wireless services dominate its competitors. The report is based on results collected between January and June 2024. It shows T-Mobile offered the fastest mobile network in the US. It also had the most consistent network. Ookla defines this category as the number of users that surpass a download speed of 5Mbps and an upload speed of 1Mbps. The findings showed T-Mobile met this threshold 87% of the time. In comparison, Verizon offered a consistent network 83% of the time and AT&T 81%.
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T-Mobile: Everything you need to know about the carrier and its services
A brief company history, subscriber count, and more
The start of a major spending spree
T-Mobile was in a different position a decade ago. It was behind major players when it came to subscriber count, performance, and coverage. It wasn't part of the top three carriers in the US and eventually fell into AT&T's sights. The company proposed to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion in 2011 but abandoned the proposal after it faced an antitrust lawsuit from the US Department of Justice. The lawsuit stated the acquisition would give AT&T too much market power.
The company made a major shift in 2013 with the launch of its Un-carrier campaign. T-Mobile did things other carriers wouldn't do at the time, like allowing customers to upgrade their phones twice a year.
The company also expanded its 4G LTE footprint to include millions of customers, a move it would replicate in the coming years through a barrage of spectrum acquisitions (and companies) that helped T-Mobile become the wireless giant it is today.
One month before announcing its Un-carrier rebranding, T-Mobile announced it paid $308 million to acquire wireless spectrum from UScellular to allow it to expand its 4G network, covering 29 markets in the Mississippi Valley region.
The carrier bought 700MHZ A Block spectrum licenses worth $2.37 billion from Verizon in 2014. The move helped the company continue building its 4G LTE network, covering roughly 158 million people in several cities, including New York, Washington D.C., and Detroit.
Taking on the FCC's auctions
A year later, T-Mobile spent $1.8 billion at the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) AWS-3 auction. It purchased 600MHZ in spectrum licenses for LTE deployment in 2017. According to a press release from the company, it bought up 45% of the available low-band spectrum, covering all of the US and Puerto Rico.
T-Mobile was also a big spender in the FCC's 2019 mmWave spectrum auctions, acquiring 1,346 24GHz licenses and 865 28GHz licenses for $842 million. The carrier continued its spending spree in 2022, taking part in Auction 108 for the 2.5GHz spectrum. T-Mobile walked away with the majority of available licenses, paying $300 million for the purchases. The licenses support wireless services nationwide, including rural areas, allowing the company to increase speeds and bring 5G services to some for the first time.
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A call to Congress
A year after purchasing the spectrum, T-Mobile was unable to access it. The FCC had lost its authority to grant the licenses under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 because Congress failed to renew the act, which had already been extended numerous times.
T-Mobile took the issue to Congress, leading to the passage of the 5G Spectrum Authority Licensing Enforcement (SALE) Act, which allowed it access to the licenses. T-Mobile started rolling out the benefits of the 2022 purchase in March 2024.
Buying up the competition
Spectrum wasn't the only thing T-Mobile was buying. Its competitors were also on the table.
The acquisition of Sprint helped propel the company to its current status. Alongside , Sprint rounded out the top three largest carriers in the US. That changed in 2020 when T-Mobile received approval to acquire Sprint for $26 billion, cementing its position as one of the big three. The move was a complete turnaround from where it was a few years ago. T-Mobile went from being acquired by a competitor to buying out its closest competition.
T-Mobile continued its acquisition spree (further reducing competition) with the purchase of Mint Mobile for $1.3 billion in May of this year. Weeks later, it announced the purchase of UScellular's wireless operations, bringing 5G connectivity to rural communities and helping its coverage in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest.
T-Mobile needs to keep spending
Ookla's report shows us one thing: the underdog doesn't always stay that way. However, it's clear that to continue to grow the way it did in the past decade, T-Mobile needs to continue spending the big bucks. If the company's 4% increase (or $16.4 billion) in service revenue reported in its Q2 2024 financial report is any indicator, that shouldn't be a problem for now.
