T-Mobile USA, Inc. is an American wireless network operator with headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas, and Bellevue, Washington. Founded in 1994 by John W. Stanton of Western Wireless Corporation as VoiceStream Wireless, the company underwent significant changes in ownership and branding over the years. In 2001, Deutsche Telekom AG, a multinational telecommunications company, acquired a majority stake in the company and rebranded it as T-Mobile USA. As of April 2023, Deutsche Telekom holds a 51.4% majority stake in T-Mobile USA, making it the largest shareholder. In its early years, the company operated under the name VoiceStream Wireless PCS, a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation. It was spun off in 1999 and subsequently purchased by Deutsche Telekom in 2001 for $35 billion. The company was then renamed T-Mobile USA, Inc. in July 2002. In 2013, T-Mobile USA finalised a merger with MetroPCS, resulting in the combined entity trading as T-Mobile U.S. On April 1, 2020, T-Mobile USA completed a merger with Sprint Corporation, making Sprint a subsidiary of T-Mobile until the Sprint brand was officially discontinued later that year.
In May 2024 T-Mobile announced the acquisition of the UScellular business in a transaction valuated at USD4.4 billion. The deal would see all of UScellular's customers and stores, along with 30% of the company's spectrum become part of T-Mobile.
3G Network
The company launched its 3G network in April 2008 over the B2 (1900 MHz) and B4 (1700 MHz) bands. The network has since been shut down.
3G Frequency Bands
| Network Frequency Band | Status |
|---|---|
|
Shut Down
|
|
|
Shut Down
|
3G Network Events
| Date | Event | Subtype |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Launch of 3G Network
|
Launch
|
4G Network
The launch of the 4G LTE network took place in March 2013, utilising the B4 (1700 MHz) band. Following this, VoLTE was activated in May 2014. The final quarter of 2014 saw the introduction of 700 MHz A block spectrum (band 13), acquired from Verizon Wireless and others (Actel and I-700 A Block LLC). In 2015, the commercial use of band 12 spectrum began, using carrier aggregation with band 4. By mid-2015, most of the 1900 MHz PCS spectrum from the EDGE network was repurposed for LTE. By September 2016, the widespread deployment of 3C CA, 4x4 MIMO, 256QAM (downlink) and 64QAM (uplink) LTE-Advanced technologies had been achieved, offering theoretical peak downlink speeds of up to 400 Mbps. The 3C CA solution merges spectrum in bands B2, B4 and B12.
NB-IoT was launched in July 2018 available on B2, B4, and B12 carriers.
4G Frequency Bands
| Network Frequency Band | Max. Channel Bandwidth | Status | Known EARFCNs |
|---|---|---|---|
|
20
|
Active
|
875,
1125
|
|
|
20
|
Active
|
2250
|
|
|
5
|
Active
|
8763
|
|
|
5
|
Active
|
5035
|
|
|
20
|
Active
|
66736
|
|
|
10
|
Active
|
68811
|
4G Network Events
| Date | Event | Subtype |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Launch of 4G Network
|
Launch
|
5G Network
T-Mobile US launched commercial 5G service in parts of six cities on June 28 2019. Initial 5G deployments have used its 28 GHz and 39 GHz mmWave spectrum, offering very limited outdoor coverage in portions of New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Cleveland, and Atlanta.
T-Mobile's 5G service uses EN-DC, establishing a high speed 4G connection and adding a 5G layer in dual-connectivity mode - aggregating the multiple bands to provide a high speed and adaptive mobile broadband service.
In July 2019 T-Mobile announced the successful testing of n71 (600 MHz) in partnership with Qualcomm and Ericsson. The network was later upgraded with additional carriers n25 and n41 following refarming of those bands from LTE.
5G Frequency Bands
| Network Frequency Band | Max. Channel Bandwidth | Status | Known EARFCNs |
|---|---|---|---|
|
25
|
Active
|
397230
|
|
|
100
|
Active
|
524190
|
|
|
20
|
Active
|
125570
|
|
|
100
|
Active
|
||
|
400
|
Active
|
||
|
800
|
Active
|
5G Network Events
| Date | Event | Subtype |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Launch of 5G Network
|
Launch
|