Newsletter
T-Mobile has now one more metric to be proud of and boast about. Notably, T-Mobile has now more retail stores as compared to its rivals AT&T and Verizon.
This feat is all thanks to the merger with one of the big-four telecom network providers in the US, Sprint. After going back and forth between public hearing, courts, and commissions, T-Mobile and Sprint finally signed the dotted line on April 1, 2020.
T-Mobile acquired Sprint to grab the latter’s mid-band 2.5GHz spectrum. The benefit of this is that T-Mobile would now be able to provide three-layer 5G services, i.e. low band, mid-band, and mmWave spectrum.
Moreover, this will allow T-Mobile in terms of coverage and experience. One of the key highlights is that as per T-Mobile, it will have 14 times capacity after six years what it would have had without Sprint’s mid-band spectrum.
Besides, the T-Mobile name is here to stay while the yellow-brand name Sprint is bidding adieu. And now, as per a report by Fiercewireless, T-Mobile now has the most number of retail stores than AT&T and Verizon by more than 2000 stores.
Most of the Sprint stores will be changed to T-Mobile, while others will completely shut down
Apparently, Sprint stores close to a T-Mobile store’s proximity will be shut down. Whereas, other Sprint stores will now be converted to a T-Mobile retail store.
And this acquisition now boosts the T-Mobile retail store number to 7,500 stores. Although the number is down from a total of 8,800 stores combined with two carriers, it is still significantly higher than other network carriers in total.
Out of the 8,800, T-Mobile branded stores are 5,000 and Sprint branded are 3,800. Besides, T-Mobile has other metrics to boast about. Recently it zoomed past AT&T’s 92.9 million postpaid and prepaid customers as of Q2 2020.
T-Mobile had 98.3 million customers, which makes the company number 2 US wireless carrier. Metro by T-Mobile prepaid has a higher store count as compared to AT&T’s Cricket Wireless and Boost Mobile.
COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the closure of some of the stores
Note that three major US carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon already were in the process of closing some of its stores before the start of the pandemic.
However, it seems like the current coronavirus situation accelerated the efforts of these companies to permanently close down some. This extended the gap between the current number of stores T-Mobile now has after the merger.
Furthermore, as per Jeff Moore, principal at Wave7 Research, T-Mobile might add up some more stores in the coming months.
Besides, the merger has left Sprint on the edge of extinction. But it is still surviving via mid-Atlantic ally Shenandoah Telecommunications (Shentel).