True to form, T-Mobile is seizing on a competitor’s recent move, and aiming to capitalize on it. T-Mobile announced today an expansion of its fixed wireless markets, bringing the service to 450 additional cities and towns.
T-Mobile claims many of those markets are experiencing AT&T’s recent stoppage of new DSL orders, giving impacted subscribers a new option for home broadband. T-Mobile says this fixed wireless markets expansion will reach 20 million people. A list of the new markets is included in T-Mobile’s press release.
T-Mobile Home Internet uses 4G LTE-based fixed wireless service to deliver average speeds of 50 Mbps for $50 per month. There are no data caps for the service and T-Mobile says there are no equipment fees for the self-installed service either.
“We can’t stand idly by while AT&T leaves potentially millions with fewer home Internet options at a time when our connection to the Internet is so vital — for work, remote school, connection with family and friends,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile in a press release. “The Carriers and the Cableopoly have consistently over-promised and under-delivered when it comes to broadband access. Thanks to our merger with Sprint, we can end this and give millions in underserved communities more choices and competition for high-speed home broadband.”
T-Mobile fixed wireless markets up to now have been expanded trials, with the launch of service recently in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
For T-Mobile, no stranger to taking jabs at its competitor, you do wonder if the two issues are really connected, or is the carrier just taking advantage of AT&T news. T-Mobile was committed to adding fixed wireless markets anyway.
The carrier committed to bringing fixed wireless to millions of the country’s households over the next six years as a condition of regulatory approval for acquiring Sprint. The AT&T angle sounds like a bit of convenient marketing spin.
Fixed wireless using LTE is one of the hottest trends in broadband. With the just concluded CBRS auction, many carriers, large and small, are making plans for fixed wireless, joining the hundreds of existing WISPs who have been at it for decades already.
Verizon is ramping up a very similar service to T-Mobile, having recently announced the service is coming to 189 markets across 48 states. Verizon’s LTE-based fixed wireless is promising 25 Mbps and does require payment for equipment.
Interestingly, AT&T offers fixed wireless too and probably aimed to offer it in some of these markets where it’s ending new DSL service. The company’s version of fixed wireless is primarily being used to meet its CAF-II obligations and offers a slower 10 Mbps service.
