T-Mobile has announced "Un-carrier 8.0," allowing users to now roll over their data every month, accumulating the unused allotments for up to a year.
This announcement, along with a number of others T-Mobile has made, shows the company is forward thinking and doesn't mind shaking up the industry. But is it unique enough to last? Not only can it last, but many suggest T-Mobile is the carrier of the future.
T-Mobile's consistent announcements are usually of great benefit to the consumer. The latest announcement means once the user pays for their data, they won't lose it, unlike at most other carriers, especially the other three of the "big four," including Sprint, Verizon and AT&T.
But this is more than just good for consumers. It's bad for the other companies. Really bad. In the third quarter of this year, T-Mobile reported adding 1.2 million lines to its service, which is more than Verizon and AT&T combined. Sprint, however, lost 500,000 customers. In other words, T-Mobile isn't just adding new customers, it's taking customers from other carriers. T-Mobile has argued it will overtake Sprint in terms of number of customers by the end of the year, with fourth-quarter results still to be released. Judging by third-quarter results, however, Sprint is just a stepping-stone for T-Mobile to take over the other companies.
Reasons for T-Mobile being the carrier of the future aren't limited to just numbers, however. While the argument could be made T-Mobile's service is just as expensive as other carriers, this is likely to change, and soon unless the other carriers can manage to make similar steps as T-Mobile. Not only that, but while prices seem similar on paper, in reality T-Mobile, for the money, is better. The company offers things like the ability for users to have their data roll over, as well as an almost endless list of music-streaming services that do not count against users' data plan.
It's not all good for T-Mobile, however. Just look at a coverage map and it's easy to see that the un-carrier's network is nowhere near as large as the likes of Verizon. The company can only expand so much before it simply won't be able to get any larger without vastly expanding its network. An argument could be made that Verizon is only as big as it is today because of the fact that in many places customers simply have no other options.
Providing T-Mobile does, however, start expanding its network, there is no reason to not believe the company has already overtaken Sprint and is on its way toward being the carrier of the future. Shaking up the industry in the way that it does doesn't count for nothing.
