T-Mobile expects to pass between 12 million and 15 million more households with fiber by 2030 through its fiber partnerships, company executives told attendees at a T-Mobile investor event today.
The company’s fiber partnerships, announced earlier this year, include a joint venture with investment firm EQT that will acquire Lumos and a joint venture with KKR to acquire Metronet.
Unsurprisingly, T-Mobile sees strong potential to convert customers that currently use the company’s fixed wireless service to fiber.
“We think there are synergies with our 5G fixed wireless customer base in markets where we’re launching fiber,” said Mike Katz, T-Mobile president of marketing strategy and products, at today’s event.
He noted that some fixed wireless access (FWA) customers may switch to fiber because they want speeds exceeding 1 Gbps or may want symmetrical service. As some of those customers upgrade to fiber, he sees an additional potential benefit.
“When a customer does that upgrade, they’re getting the kind of connection that they’re looking for, and it also opens up a new incremental slot for an additional 5G broadband customer,” Katz noted. That’s important, considering that the company currently has 1 million people on a waiting list to get 5G broadband (a.k.a., fixed wireless) service.
Being able to offer a fiber option also could help prevent T-Mobile from losing FWA customers if the company’s 5G network, which is shared with mobile customers, becomes too crowded.
T-Mobile Fiber
In reference to T-Mobile’s fiber joint ventures, Katz said, “We’re really excited about the companies we’re going to be partnering with.”
Those companies, he said, are very successful at deploying fiber and at gaining broadband market share of 35% or better.
This doesn’t mean T-Mobile is moving away from fixed wireless, however. The offering has been very successful for the company, which has raised its target and now aims to have 12 million 5G broadband customers by 2028.
Its current FWA customer tally is 5.6 million.
T-Mobile also believes that its broadband customer acquisition costs will be lower than those of its competitors because of its brand, distribution and existing customer base. Additionally, the company expects its cost to serve will be lower and believes its take rates will ramp up more quickly in comparison with its competitors.
A replay of Katz’s comments, made at T-Mobile’s Capital Markets Day event today, can be found at this link.
