CEO of T-Mobile, John Legere has vowed to compete with Verizon with regards to network quality and overtake Sprint in subscriber numbers to become the country’s number three carrier this year. He has also vowed to bring T-Mobile’s “uncarrier” offerings to more consumers in the process. Although a lack of network coverage has been plaguing T-Mobile, Legere has disclosed that his company’s LTE network covers 264 million POPs, while rival Verizon’s covers approximately 306 million POPs.
Legere wrote in a recent blog post, “So yeah, there are places we don’t reach yet. But, here’s the interesting part, where we do reach the same people our LTE network is the fastest nationwide. And, this coming year, we’ll cover 300 million people with our blazing-fast LTE network – not to mention we plan on covering more than 150 metro areas with Wideband LTE and deploying 700 MHz spectrum in approximately 350 metro areas. So, what are they going to do when we reach everyone they reach with a faster network? Yeah, this is real, Verizon.”
In August 2014, Legere predicted that his company would overtake Sprint with regards to subscribers. His blog post also mentioned, “T-Mobile will – officially – become the No. 3 wireless company in America in 2015. This summer, I said we’d blow by Sprint by the end of 2014 to become the No. 3 wireless company in the U.S. They have been swinging the bat since I made that statement, so we won’t know where things stand until we get the final score after we both report Q4 earnings, but whether it is now – or soon – I’m telling you, it’s a done deal!”
Legere stated that T-Mobile’s MetroPCS prepaid brand will continue pushing ahead in the market and his company is also “continuing to open new doors, add new handsets and offer new solutions to these customers.” He also said that once the AWS-3 auction ends, attention will focus on the incentive auction of 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrum scheduled to start early next year.
Legere’s post further mentioned, “However, I am sure that AT&T and Verizon will continue to try and monopolize the industry as well as try to stall the incentive auction, preventing competitive carriers like T-Mobile from winning sufficient amounts of low-band spectrum. The U.S. Government will need to step in and ensure that companies like the Un-carrier can continue to fight the big guys by establishing balanced rules for this auction. Then we will be able to keep driving innovation in this industry!”
Legere ended off his writing by stating, “There’s strong emotion on every side of the net neutrality issue. But we all agree on one thing: a free and open internet. In the coming year, I predict that D.C. and the industry will begin the incredibly hard work of figuring out how we achieve that goal.”
