T-Mobile just did what the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs are attempting to do this year. The carrier just delivered a press release to announce that for the third consecutive year, it topped all five network experience categories in Opensignal’s January Mobile Network Experience Report. To add the icing on top of the cake, T-Mobile scored victories in additional 5G Performance and network consistency categories. The Chiefs aren’t looking to extend a streak that has to do with 5G wireless service, but they seek a third consecutive Super Bowl title.
We told you about the report in-depth yesterday, but today T-Mobile is taking a victory lap to let everyone know that it has this pretty impressive winning streak going on. According to T-Mobile, the carrier delivers 5G signals to more than 330 million people in the U.S. covering two million square miles. T-Mobile‘s faster mid-band Ultra Capacity 5G service covers more than 300 million people in the U.S. The service also has twice the coverage than similar mid-band 5G plans offered by T-Mobile‘s closest rivals.
You might wonder whether the average consumer uses the results of these network experience “battles” to help them choose which wireless provider to use. Whether they do or don’t, the carrier’s President of Technology, Ulf Ewaldsson, confirms how T-Mobile has come a long way since AT&T offered $39 billion to buy the company.
“Winning these metrics for the third year in a row proves how quickly we’ve risen from challenger to champion. Five years into the 5G era, we’re still leading the industry, pushing boundaries to deliver unparalleled experiences for our customers. And the best is yet to come because we’re just getting started!”-Ulf Ewaldsson, President of Technology, T-Mobile
Since the deal did not get regulatory approval, AT&T did not buy T-Mobile which was a huge break for the latter. The next year they hired John Legere to be CEO and the amazing turnaround began. Here we are nearly 14 years later and T-Mobile is valued at more than $250 billion or more than six times what AT&T was willing to pay for it.
Because the deal didn’t go through even though both carriers signed off on it, T-Mobile was entitled to receive a $3 billion break-up fee from AT&T along with a seven-year roaming agreement that included 128 markets and increased T-Mobile‘s coverage at the time from 230 million Americans to 280 million. Many believe that the combination of receiving AT&T‘s break-up package and the hiring of the unconventional Legere to run the carrier started the amazing journey that T-Mobile has taken to become the second largest carrier in the nation.
The Opensignal Mobile Network Experience Report for January 2025 was based on independent analysis of “mobile measurements” recorded during the period September 1 – November 29, 2024.
