- T-Mobile seized the mobile network crown in a big way this week
- But if it’s not careful, loyal customers at rival carriers will tune it out
- For sure, Verizon is tuning it out, arguing that drive tests are more meaningful than T-Mobile’s methodology
The bravado was on full display when T-Mobile executives took the stage this week to declare network victory based on the Best Mobile Network award from Ookla. Or as newly minted T-Mobile spokesman Billy Bob Thornton put it: Some fancy experts did a “big old network test” that showed T-Mobile’s network is the best, ousting long-time network ruler Verizon and opening up a big old can of whoop.
Crazy as it may sound, it wasn’t always a sure thing that T-Mobile was going to make such a huge public display of self-affection. During T-Mobile’s big coming out event, President and CEO Mike Sievert said he and his team “took a minute” before they decided to very publicly claim overall network leadership – not just in 5G. They feared people might get the impression that T-Mobile is done perfecting its network when the opposite is the case.
But there’s another reason T-Mobile’s leadership might hesitate to go all-in on the network supremacy narrative: confirmation bias. That’s the tendency for people to interpret new evidence as confirmation of their existing beliefs or theories.
Here’s how long-time industry analyst and Recon Analytics founder Roger Entner put it:
“The customers who are receptive to the [network] message have already heard it,” he told Fierce. “Then there’s the segment that tunes this completely out. People who are with their carrier for a long time are not receptive to it and the more you hammer it, the worse it actually gets.”
In other words, people typically choose their mobile network provider because they think it offers the best service where they live, work and play. Generally speaking, people don’t like to be told they’re wrong. If a carrier like, say, T-Mobile, hammers home that they made the wrong choice, these consumers will hunker down harder with AT&T or Verizon.
“I think T Mobile is trying to walk that thin line of attacking Verizon by saying, ‘Hey, we used to be the worst and Verizon was the best, but now we are the best.’ They're trying to thread a very thin needle here. I personally don't know if it's working or not,” Entner said.
Verizon: We’re still tops
For the record, Verizon is not buying what T-Mobile is selling, saying the crowdsourcing methodology used by Ookla to determine network quality is questionable and often leads to inaccurate or biased results.
“The lack of data control, potential for bias and privacy concerns mean it can't replace more rigorous, controlled testing for in-depth network optimization,” a Verizon spokesperson told Fierce.
“RootMetrics, with its rigorous, scientific methodology and controlled drive testing, provides more reliable and in-depth network performance data compared to crowdsourcing. According to their latest reports, RootMetrics' concluded that Verizon has the most reliable 5G network,” the spokesperson concluded.
Sievert anticipated rivals’ preference for RootMetrics, warning that we would see “a little bit of an attempt at obfuscation” upon hearing T-Mobile’s network claims. He didn’t entirely discount RootMetrics’ drive tests but stressed that they’re limited in scope and rely on a miniscule number of users versus the millions of data points that Ookla analyzes.
T-Mobile talks coverage
T-Mobile executives freely admit that T-Mobile’s network was dead last before it acquired 600 MHz and Sprint’s precious 2.5 GHz spectrum in the 5G era. Since then, it made enormous advancements in coverage, speed, latency and many other network metrics. Still, some people could still perceive Verizon as having the edge, especially in rural areas, because of its vast 4G LTE network.
Fierce asked T-Mobile executives about that in a phone interview earlier this week.
T-Mobile President of Technology Ulf Ewaldsson said in some areas where T-Mobile doesn’t have the greatest coverage, it relies on “incredibly good” roaming agreements with other carriers. Other than that, it’s fair to say that T-Mobile’s terrestrial coverage is on par with Verizon.
T-Mobile President of Marketing, Strategy and Products Mike Katz echoed that sentiment, saying the terrestrial network that T-Mobile customers have access to, in terms of the number of square miles covered in the U.S., is essentially the same as Verizon’s.
“Does that mean there'll be places where Verizon terrestrial network works and T-Mobile's doesn’t? Sure, but the same will also be true that there'll be places where T-Mobile's network works and Verizon doesn't,” he said.
The real kicker is T-Mobile will eliminate a lot of terrestrial dead zones when it launches T-Satellite, the mobile-to-satellite service it’s created with Starlink. T-Mobile already has 1.8 million customers who’ve signed up for it ahead of the official July 23 commercial launch.
T-Mobile execs continue to say they’re a couple years ahead of the competition and they aim to keep it that way. Expect to hear more about that on an even grander scale going forward.
“You’re going to see everything we talk about from now on will be different because we’ve decided to embrace this network leadership that’s been many, many years in the making and make it a centerpiece of our communications from today forward,” Sievert promised.