T-Mobile says its 4G LTE network now covers 300 million people across the U.S., a major milestone as the company continues to try to close the coverage gap between itself and its competitors.
The announcement represents a major milestone, but it’s one that both AT&T and Verizon hit more than a year ago.
The news highlights just how heavily the Bellevue, Wash.-based wireless carrier is investing in beefing up its coverage map, but how far it still has to go before it will be considered on par with industry leaders.
The 300 million PoPs, or points of presence, the company announced don’t represent customers who have already signed up for service. Instead, it’s a measure of how many people live somewhere T-Mobile is able to cover.
The company is significantly smaller than AT&T and Verizon, but it has been mounting a comeback with the so-called “Un-carrier” campaign and a series of industry-changing promotions. But perks like contract flexibility and free music streaming don’t help a whole lot if potential customers are afraid they won’t get the basic coverage they need from T-Mobile.
“I couldn’t be more excited about cresting 300 million PoPs. That’s a lot of work over many years,” T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray said on an investor call after the company reported Q3 earnings on Tuesday.
T-Mobile says it already has the spectrum it needs to cover another 20 million people and, while it might not have the largest network, it does claim to have the fastest growing. By the end of the year, the company is on pace to add 1 million square miles to its coverage area.
The milestone was a silver lining on a quarterly report that otherwise was not well received. T-Mobile continued adding customers at a faster pace than AT&T and Verizon, but it fell short of Wall Street’s expectations for revenue and profits. The company’s stock was trading down about 4 percent in the hours immediately following the release.
