MVNO Spotlight: T-Mobile

T-Mobile U.S. traces its roots to the 1994 establishment of VoiceStream Wireless PCS as a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation. After its spin off from parent Western Wireless on May 3, 1999, VoiceStream Wireless was purchased by Deutsche Telekom AG in 2001 for $35 billion and renamed T-Mobile USA, Inc, in July 2002. In 2013, T-Mobile and MetroPCS finalised a merger of the two companies which started trading as T-Mobile U.S.

In 2000, VoiceStream Wireless acquired two regional GSM carriers. Omnipoint Corporation, a regional network operator in the Northeastern U.S., was acquired on February 25, 2000. Aerial Communications Inc.; a regional network operator in the Columbus, Houston, Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Pittsburgh, and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Orlando markets; was acquired on May 4, 2000. The combined company retired the Omnipoint and Aerial brands and completed integrating the three companies by converting to a single customer billing platform, implementing standard business practices and launching the VoiceStream brand and "GET MORE" marketing strategy in all markets.

On June 1, 2001, Deutsche Telekom (DT) completed the acquisition of VoiceStream Wireless Inc. for $35 billion and Southern U.S. regional GSM network operator Powertel, Inc. for $24 billion. By the end of 2001, VoiceStream Wireless had 19,000 employees serving 7 million subscribers.

By the end of 2001, VoiceStream Wireless had 19,000 employees serving 7 million subscribers.

In March 2013, T-Mobile introduced a major overhaul of its plan structure, marketed by branding themselves as being "the Un-carrier". A new contract-free pricing structure with simpler plans was introduced in which a phone's cost is paid over a two-year financing plan. The "Un-carrier" strategy has since been expanded to encompass other value-added services, such as a plan add-on allowing phone trade-ins for early upgrades twice per year, carrying over unused data allotments for up to a year, and zero-rating of selected music and video services (the latter locked to "DVD quality") over the mobile network, These moves came as part of an effort under new CEO John Legere to help revitalize the business as it improves its network quality.

In November 2017, Sprint and T-Mobile announce that they are ending discussions about a merger because regulators were unlikely to sign off.

By March 2018, T-Mobile's advanced nationwide 4G LTE network provides wireless services to 74 million customers.

On April 29, 2018, T-Mobile announces an all-stock agreement to merge with Sprint.

December 2018, T-Mobile reports having 51,787 employees, including 7,807 in Washington state, and more than $43 billion in revenue.

In the fourth quarter, T-Mobile had 1.9 million total net additions, the 27th quarter in a row with more than 1 million total net additions. In addition, the company delivered branded postpaid phone net additions of 1.0 million and branded postpaid phone churn of 1.01% in the fourth quarter. For full-year 2019, T-Mobile had 7.0 million total net additions, including 4.5 million branded postpaid net additions – beating its increased customer guidance range of 4.1 to 4.3 million for the full-year 2019. T-Mobile’s total customer base was 86.0 million at year-end 2019, an increase of approximately 53 million since T-Mobile launched the Un-carrier in 2013.

On April 1, 2020, T-Mobile and Sprint Corporation completed their merger, with T-Mobile now being the sole owner of Sprint, making Sprint an effective subsidiary of T-Mobile until the Sprint brand was officially phased out on August 2, 2020.

Network: T-Mobile (GSM)

Pros:

· Over all package is cheap

· Additional 500MB every year for 5 years

· Scam Shield protection

· Taxes and extra fees included in package

· Solid coverage

· All-in pricing that includes taxes and fees

· Excellent unlimited plans

· Good international perks

· Netflix subscriptions on multi-line plans

Cons

· Slightly fewer Add-Ons

· Only 2.5GB or 5.5GB of fast data

· No 5G data available

· No additional perks

· Can only be used in the United States

· Plans can be relatively expensive

· You may prefer Verizon or AT&T for their coverage

· Advertising can be somewhat annoying

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