T-Mobile announced today that it plans to expand its rollout of high speed LTE to its entire 2G network. The company said that it expects more than half of the work will be completed this year and that the rollout should be “substantially complete” by the middle of 2015.
The news comes on the one-year anniversary of T-Mobile’s initial LTE rollout. Right now, the company says its LTE network reaches 210 million customers, in 273 metropolitan areas nationwide. This 4G expansion should allow it to reach many more customers.
“Our 4G LTE is going to reach 230 million people across the U.S. by mid-year. By year’s end, we’re going to be delivering wicked-fast 4G LTE to more than 250 million people,” T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray said in a press release.
The announcement is partially a reaction to Verizon’s ads showing different companies’ LTE coverage. While T-Mobile claims that it covers 96 percent of Americans, its LTE coverage is fairly contained to cities. John Legere, T-Mobile’s outspoken CEO, says that the ads don’t accurately reflect what customers experience.
“Verizon’s ink blots massively understate our coverage and don’t begin to represent the actual customer experience on T-Mobile’s network,” he said.
The company has been making a number of changes to its service in recent months, announcing tweaks to its rate plans and its JUMP early upgrade plan. In addition, rumors of a potential merger between Sprint and the Bellevue-based wireless carrier continue to swirl, especially as Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son continues to promote the idea that a merged carrier would be better able to compete with Verizon and AT&T.
In addition to the rollout, T-Mobile also launched a new advertisement promoting its coverage, embedded below:
