Monday, April 17, 2017

T-Mobile Jumps Over Another Hurdle

It was little over a year ago we noted that T-Mobile had overcome our biggest objection to sign up as T-Mobile customers.  They had purchased a large chunk of 700 MHz spectrum, and had actually built cell sites using those frequencies giving them more, and better, coverage than ever.  Now that they have purchased another large swath of spectrum in the new 600MHz band, we would expect them to pretty much cover the entire US (yes, Alaska and Hawaii as well) as well as...or, egad, better, than other carriers.

We don't usually give credit to carriers for new coverage until it actually happens and in this case we will add our usual dose of caution: we won't be using this new spectrum until we can get 600 MHz-capable phones.  They're coming, and T-Mobile claims they'll start using their newly-acquired space later this year.  Yes, this is possible, but to fully use this new spectrum, a few hundred TV stations have to move their on-air TV channels, which could take years.  Also, 600 MHz isn't the best wireless coverage band, but it fits well into T-Mobile's spectrum portfolio even though it doesn't address those elusive "5G" needs.  The part we like the most is what happened in several areas with their 700 MHz bands: coverage in rural America.


The next thing we have to endure are all the stories that will state that now T-Mobile becomes an even better takeover candidate, or merger partner with Sprint.  Aw, c'mon.  That honor belongs to Dish and Comcast, the other big 600 MHz auction winners.

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