T-Mobile will continue to increase the footprint of its LTE 4G network, but it won’t reach the coverage offered by competing networks from AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless.
According to the Wall Street Journal, T-Mobile’s LTE footprint will eventually cover 225 million POPs around the country. T-Mobile’s EDGE 2G network reaches “just under 300 million,” according to T-Mobile executives. The company did not explain why it won’t push its LTE 4G network to its entire 2G footprint, but the issue is likely T-Mobile’s spectrum holdings. It may not have the spectrum needed to cover its entire EDGE network with LTE 4G. Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless expect to cover more than 300 million people with their LTE 4G networks once fully complete, and Sprint expects to cover 275 million. Earlier this week, T-Mobile said its LTE network is available to 202 million people around the country.
T-Mobile didn’t say when it expects to finish its LTE build-out, but it did say that it will increase capacity across its LTE network beginning next year.
