T-Mobile US claimed a global first with activation of standalone 5G in 600 MHz
T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert and President of Technology Neville Ray, discussing the operator’s second quarter financial results, touted the expansion of 600 MHz-based 5G coverage with the recent activation of a standalone core and provided an update of the ongoing integration of Sprint assets.
To sum it up, Sievert said, according to a transcript provided by Seeking Alpha, “In the 5G race, T-Mobile is pulling way ahead…AT&T and Verizon don’t want you see what’s becoming so painfully obvious. T-Mobile is miles ahead of both of them.”
T-Mo has described its 5G approach as like a three-tiered layer cake with 600 MHz as the coverage foundation, Sprint’s metro 2.5 GHz blending coverage and capacity in the middle, and millimeter wave on top providing 1 Gbps-plus speeds in urban cores.
Ray put it in terms of breadth and depth, noting the low-band 5G network covers 250 million people. “That gives us the breadth,” he said. “The depth comes from the 2.5 GHz spectrum…And all I can say is, we are baking that cake super, super fast.” How fast? Up to 700 sites per week. “You can all do that math…We are running very, very hard.”
For the quarter, T-Mobile US counted 1.245 million net additions with the vast majority coming from postpaid subscribers; that gives it a total customer count of about 98.3 million which it characterized as more than AT&T, effectively making T-Mobile the second biggest wireless provider in the U.S., although there’s some disputes about how that math breaks out. Total revenues hit $17.7 billion in the quarter with $110 million in net income.
“In Q2, T-Mobile once again led the industry in total branded customer growth for the 22nd consecutive quarter firmly establishing New T-Mobile as the leading growth company in the industry,” Sievert said.
He noted that 2.5 GHz 5G has been activated in markets like New York City, Houston, Los Angeles and others and added, “By the end of the year, customers will find mid-band 5G in thousands of cities and towns across the country.”
And in keeping with long-standing company tradition established by predecessor John Legere, Sievert dinged the hell out T-Mo’s competitors. “Maybe they’ll deliver nationwide 5G coverage someday, but they’ll beg, borrow and steal from their LTE networks…claiming tools like Dynamic Spectrum Sharing will overcome their spectrum shortage. When you get to what’s real about 5G, T-Mobile’s network is demonstrably ahead of the competition even as we just start pouring on the gas.”
Click here to access the full Q2 resources provided by T-Mobile US.
