The battle for the No. 3 position in the United States' wireless carrier sector is heating up, with T-Mobile Chief Executive Officer John Legere claiming his company will pass Sprint by this year as the country's third-largest carrier by subscription.
This comes as both T-Mobile and Sprint continue to roll out media campaigns promoting their cheaper plans that have the same data, unlimited talk and text offerings as the top two wireless companies, AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
T-Mobile is also claiming that it has become the top prepaid wireless company in the country, with over 15.64 million users. That is slightly more than the reported 15.19 million that Sprint currently boasts.
Postpaid users still prefer Verizon and AT&T, although efforts by Sprint and Verizon to go after the top two in advertising appears to have increased interest in their operations.
"I predict the #uncarrier will overtake @Sprint in total customers by the end of the year! There, I said it!," tweeted Legere.
The boost in users could be the result of Sprint's continued effort to overhaul its network, which has led to service being down for periods of time, frustrating users.
"The good news just keeps on coming for T-Mobile. The momentum we're seeing with our T-Mobile and MetroPCS brands is outstanding, and the fact that we've blown by everyone to take the No.1 spot in prepaid is icing on the cake," Legere said in a separate statement.
The statement also comes after SoftBank, Sprint's parent company, ended its attempts to take over T-Mobile. Sprint had claimed the acquisition was a "win-win" for the American public, reports Tech Times.
SoftBank CEO and Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son had vowed the purchase of T-Mobile would continue to drive down user costs on a monthly basis as competition in the mobile sector increased. But concerns over whether U.S. government regulators would approve the deal had left the deal on the table, although the company did say it would continue to look into a potential deal with T-Mobile down the road.
T-Mobile, however, is not without its issues. Its parent company, Deutsche Telekom, has said that it is worried about the company's continued growth without a low-frequency spectrum and fixed-line infrastructure. This, the German company says, could stifle the company's ability to expand exponentially in the American market.
