- Ookla presented T-Mobile with the “best mobile network” award
- The award was the subject of a webcast featuring the CEO, COO and other execs
- One company exec said it wasn’t timed to go one day ahead of Verizon’s big “624” announcement. Uh huh.
T-Mobile is claiming the network victory of all time: not only best 5G network, but best mobile network overall – a title that rival Verizon held for years.
The award, presented by Ookla, comes after numerous other studies that usually included qualifiers, like “5G,” in the description. This one stands out because it's more than “most available” or “fastest downlink.” This one is strictly: “best mobile network.”
Some analysts within the wireless industry started identifying T-Mobile as the one with the most 5G coverage or “best network” a long time ago. But beyond earnings calls and press releases, T-Mobile didn’t make network leadership the centerpiece of its consumer communications like it’s going to do going forward.
During a webcast on Monday, Sievert said the top brass at T-Mobile took a minute before deciding how public they wanted to go with the Ookla award. That’s because there’s a tendency for people to think they’ve reached the pinnacle and then they’re going to rest on their laurels.
T-Mobile doesn’t plan to do that. “We're here to not only defend but extend this leadership for years to come because claiming you're the best comes with a burden. People are going to expect more from us, and we know that, and we're ready for it,” Sievert said.
How public are they going? T-Mobile hired actor Billy Bob Thornton, currently starring in the soapy and oh-so-addicting “Landman,” to appear in a commercial in which he talks about the end of Verizon’s reign as best network and the rise of T-Mobile. T-Mobile showed a long version of a video spot with Thornton; a shorter version was scheduled to debut as part of a campaign airing Monday night, according to President of Marketing, Strategy and Products Mike Katz.
T-Mobile: Why this award is different
The award was presented by Ookla after about six months of analysis that included more than 570 million test points and 6 million different devices, T-Mobile President of Technology Ulf Ewaldsson told Fierce by phone after the webcast. (Fun trivia: Ewaldsson took his position at T-Mobile after the departure of former President of Technology Neville Ray, who now sits on Ookla’s board.)
The fact that the Ookla award is so comprehensive makes it easier to take it to a worldwide, consumer-oriented audience. “When you win the collective, most prestigious thing is when they just say, ‘OK, your network is the best,’” Ewaldsson said. “For us, it's a huge opportunity now to just simply go out and say ‘we have the best network.’”
T-Mobile is so confident in its network that it’s telling Verizon customers to ditch their provider and switch to T-Mobile. That’s not a new thing, but it’s offering to pay off Verizon customers’ old phones and provide a new flagship phone “on us” to get them to come over.
By the way, Fierce asked Katz if the "best network" news was timed to usurp Verizon's big "624" announcement due tomorrow. "I didn't even realize that," he said, noting the big reason for the announcement on Monday was Ookla just shared the results of the tests and they wanted to get the word out. Plus, they wanted to tell folks when the satellite-powered service will launch.
T-Satellite will launch July 23
Besides boasting the “best network,” T-Mobile is bragging that it will have the best satellite coverage when its T-Satellite direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service commercially launches on July 23. The service is being provided via T-Mobile’s PCS spectrum and a partnership with Starlink.
“We are literally light years ahead of what any competitor is doing in this space,” Katz said.
About 500,000 square miles of the U.S. are not covered by any mobile provider, including AT&T and Verizon, he said. Conveniently, T-Mobile will offer its satellite service to AT&T and Verizon customers for $10/month.
That’s for texting in hard-to-reach places. T-Mobile plans to bring data to the satellite-to-cellular network on October 1, when it will also make 911 texting available via satellite for free to all customers with a compatible device.
To be clear, the data service doesn’t mean customers will be watching Netflix in the middle of nowhere. The satellite network doesn’t support 4K streaming, but T-Mobile will be offering a bunch of apps that can take advantage of the satellites, such as mapping, What’sApp and T-Life.
T-Mobile's spectrum position
This won’t be news to some Fierce readers, but T-Mobile COO Srini Gopalan, who is expected to succeed Sievert at some point, spent some time during the event to review T-Mobile’s spectrum position and how that gives it an edge over its rivals in the mobile space.
T-Mobile now has about 82,715 towers across the country, which is about 10-15% more than Verizon, giving it better coverage, he said.
Another big advantage lies in its spectrum. T-Mobile uses low-band 600 MHz for its 5G coverage layer, and it has “Goldilocks” spectrum at 2.5 GHz for the midband layer, which propagates better than the 3.7 GHz C-band spectrum that Verizon and AT&T use for their midband 5G.
“We've got the most towers, the best spectrum and the most advanced network technology. Put that together, and you get the best network,” Gopalan said.