T-Mobile Making Progress With Coverage Expansion And MetroPCS Integration
Humberto Saabedra
T-Mobile has officially announced progress on its ongoing integration of MetroPCS, which includes the refarming of spectrum and shutting down the older CDMA network once operated by the now T-Mobile subsidiary in its first quarter earnings results. The percentage of refarmed MetroPCS spectrum now being used by T-Mobile for its LTE/HSPA network now stands at 80%, according to the carrier.
T-Mobile has also confirmed that it has migrated the majority of MetroPCS customers from the company’s legacy CDMA network and onto the GSM/LTE network with fewer than 500,000 MetroPCS customers still using the network. As a result, T-Mobile has shut down the MetroPCS CDMA network in Atlanta and Detroit during the first quarter of the year, bringing the overall total to 8 market shutdowns, with only 3 major markets left to refarm and shutdown. T-Mobile expects to shut down the remainder of the MetroPCS CDMA network by the end of the year.
T-Mobile has also announced further expansion of its 700Mhz spectrum rollout for improved indoor LTE coverage, with 700MHz coverage going live in Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Tampa, San Antonio, and Detroit during the first quarter, bringing the coverage expansion to 55 markets, along with expansion of its Wideband LTE service, now covering 157 markets across the country and expected to cover 200 markets by the end of the year. Finally, T-Mobile has confirmed that its spectrum and license winnings in the recent AWS-3 auction cover 97 million people across the country.
