It’s never been easy for consumers to sort out the conflicting claims from the major U.S. wireless carriers about the respective size and speed of their networks. T-Mobile USA has made things a little more simple, at least.
Fierce Wireless reports that the Bellevue-based company is no longer making the claim that it operates “America’s Largest 4G Network.”
The site notes that T-Mobile’s assertion about its HSPA+ network, covering areas with population of 215 million people, had become “increasingly dubious.” AT&T, which claims the “nation’s largest 4G network,” has increased the size of its combined HSPA+ and LTE network to cover a population of 250 million people.
T-Mobile issued this statement in response to Fierce Wireless’ questions.
“With the breadth of T-Mobile’s nationwide 4G network well established, we recently moved to a network claim that reflects the network’s performance and reliability, particularly with the $4 billion investment we’re making and recent accolades like the PC Magazine Fastest Mobile Networks Test, which showed T-Mobile’s 4G network to be very competitive with current LTE networks. T-Mobile became the first nationwide 4G network and began using ‘America’s Largest 4G Network’ in marketing more than 18 months ago. Since that time, competitors have worked to catch up as we’ve continued to expand and strengthen our 4G network. We don’t care to debate these last few POPs, and the numbers are constantly changing.”
For the record, Verizon claims “America’s fastest 4G network” with”more 4G LTE coverage than all other networks combined.”
This development doesn’t help T-Mobile USA, but in the end, none of these claims are really helpful to customers. Unless you’re traveling a lot, what matters is the coverage in your particular city and neighborhood, and to figure that out, services such as the one from Seattle startup RootMetrics are more useful than any marketing slogan.
