Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

T-Mobile loves competition in the wireless industry while it low-blows Verizon’s plan changes

By

t mobile fcc settlement
Chris Potter/Flickr
T-Mobile positions itself as the Uncarrier, a self-described wireless industry disruptor that spurred competitors to copy its ways. Instead of opting for a press release, however, T-Mobile sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with the carrier extolling its own successes while chastising others.

T-Mobile talked up its Uncarrier strategy and how, since its inception back in March 2013, competitors like Verizon and AT&T have implemented similar tactics, such as dropping two-year contracts in favor of equipment installment plans (EIPs). However, it is because other carriers mimicked its offerings that T-Mobile believes the U.S. wireless industry became more competitive over the years.

Recommended Videos

“Since our first Uncarrier announcement more than three years ago, we have relentlessly challenged the status quo in the wireless industry by identifying and removing consumer pain points,” the FCC filing reads. “The large incumbent carriers have taken notice and responded by replicating some of the most popular features of our innovative programs albeit often without offering the same high level of consumer benefit.”

Related

The carrier was not entirely beneath chastising others, however, as T-Mobile threw Verizon plenty of shade for the latter’s plan changes on Thursday, July 7. As T-Mobile and plenty of others pointed out, Verizon increased the monthly data allotment for all of its postpaid plans, but also increased their monthly costs. Verizon did not see the changes as price hikes, since the price per gigabyte decreased.

Regardless, because of T-Mobile’s so-called “innovative products,” the carrier believes there is no further need for regulation, which was originally put in place in order to spur competition.

“T-Mobile therefore urges the Commission to consider these developments as part of its annual assessment of competition in the mobile wireless market as well as when the agency evaluates potential actions that allow for ongoing and vigorous competition amongst providers,” T-Mobile wrote.

T-Mobile ended the letter by urging the FCC to pay close attention to any actions that might “inhibit or limit the ability of competitors like T-Mobile to offer innovative products and services to consumers.”

The FCC is scheduled to release its annual report on the state of the wireless industry by year’s end.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Williams Pelegrin
Williams Pelegrin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…
T-Mobile’s 5G Ultra Capacity network has four times the coverage of Verizon and AT&T
T-Mobile smartphone.

Last week, a report from Ookla revealed that T-Mobile's 5G and 4G LTE networks are nearly twice as fast as those of Verizon and AT&T. Today, Opensignal released the results of a new study that reveals one of the most significant reasons for T-Mobile's lead.

5G services cover a much wider range of frequencies than older cellular technologies, each with unique advantages and disadvantages. Since low-band 5G frequencies have considerably more range than higher frequencies and generally share the same airwaves as 4G/LTE services, all three carriers have leveraged this spectrum to provide their extended nationwide coverage. T-Mobile calls this its 5G Extended Range network, Verizon uses the term 5G Nationwide, and AT&T just calls it 5G.

Read more
T-Mobile’s 5G and 4G LTE networks are nearly twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T
The T-Mobile logo on a smartphone.

Ookla's second-quarter market report has just gone live, revealing that T-Mobile still has a commanding lead over rivals Verizon and AT&T when it comes to offering the fastest and most consistent speeds throughout the U.S.

T-Mobile took the top spot for performance on both its 5G and 4G/LTE networks, with median download speeds of 187.33Mbps on 5G and 116.54Mbps across the board. Overall, that's nearly twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T, which clocked in at 59.67Mbps and 54.64Mbps, respectively. The Un-carrier also delivered the most consistent speeds of the bunch, with 85.7% of tests showing at least 5Mpbs download and 1Mbps upload speeds.

Read more
T-Mobile’s 5G network just beat Verizon and AT&T (again)
T-Mobile smartphone.

T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T always claim to be America's best 5G network in their commercials. T-Mobile boasts this even more so, and as it turns out, it's true. During PCMag's annual Best Mobile Network test (previously known as the Fastest Mobile Network test), T-Mobile won over Verizon and AT&T as the Best Mobile Network for the second year in a row.

PCMag gave T-Mobile the title after testers drove 10,000 miles across the country to measure its performance against Verizon and AT&T. The test involved driving to 30 cities and six rural regions to test each mobile carrier's reliability using Samsung Galaxy S22+ smartphones. As expected, T-Mobile won that contest in 18 cities out of 30, followed by Verizon with eight and AT&T with four.

Read more