T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s principal operating subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, was formed in 1994 as VoiceStream Wireless PCS, initially a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation; in May 1999, VoiceStream was spun off from Western Wireless.⁠[1][1]

On May 31, 2001, Deutsche Telekom AG acquired VoiceStream and in July 2002 renamed it T-Mobile USA, Inc., which thereafter operated as Deutsche Telekom’s wholly owned U.S. subsidiary.⁠[1][1]

In March 2011, AT&TAT&TAT&T (AT&T Inc.) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its predecessor was SBC Communications, a regional holding company created in the 1984 breakup of the Bell System; SBC merged with the original AT&T Corp. in 2005 and adopted its name, and it has since operated a nationwide wireless network and fiber broadband, at one time also owning DIRECTV and WarnerMedia.Open the full entry agreed to acquire all shares of T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for approximately $39 billion. In light of opposition from the U.S. Department of Justice and the FCC, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom terminated the deal in December 2011. Under the agreement, AT&T paid Deutsche Telekom a $3 billion cash break-up fee in December 2011 and transferred rights to AWS spectrum to T-Mobile USA along with a long-term roaming agreement.⁠[1][1][1]

John Legere served as T-Mobile’s CEO from 2012 (his employment agreement was dated September 22, 2012), engineering a turnaround and becoming known for Un-carrier moves that upended industry practices; the company said it captured 80% of the industry’s postpaid phone growth from 2013 to 2020.⁠[2][3][2]

In March 2013, T-Mobile launched the first phase of its Un-carrier strategy, introducing Simple Choice plans that eliminated annual service contracts as well as caps and overage charges, aiming to address consumer frustration with the cost and complexity of wireless service; at the time it was the fourth-largest postpaid and third-largest prepaid carrier in the United States.⁠[1][1][1]

On April 30, 2013, T-Mobile USA completed its business combination with prepaid carrier MetroPCS Communications to form T-Mobile US, Inc., with the listed entity being MetroPCS, incorporated in Delaware in 2004 and renamed that day. Deutsche Telekom exchanged all of its T-Mobile USA shares for approximately 74% of the combined company; before the combination, it recapitalized T-Mobile USA by exchanging $14.5 billion of long-term affiliate debt for $11.2 billion of new senior unsecured notes and contributed approximately $3.1 billion in additional paid-in capital.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In April 2017, the FCC announced the results of the broadcast incentive auction, in which T-Mobile bought a nationwide average of 31 MHz of 600 MHz low-band spectrum for $8.0 billion, covering 328 million people; by the end of 2017 its low-band holdings (600 MHz and 700 MHz) were about 41 MHz, four times its pre-auction level.⁠[3][3]

On April 1, 2020, T-Mobile completed its merger with Sprint Corporation, the fourth-largest U.S. telecommunications company, making Sprint and its subsidiaries wholly owned subsidiaries; the combined company continued to operate as T-Mobile and trade on Nasdaq under the symbol TMUS. The company’s financial statements put total consideration at $40.8 billion; the merger used an exchange ratio of 0.10256 T-Mobile shares per Sprint share, and SoftBank GroupSoftBank GroupSoftBank Group (SoftBank Group Corp.) is an investment holding company headquartered in Tokyo, founded by Masayoshi Son in 1981. Starting out as a distributor of personal computer software, it moved into the internet, broadband and mobile communications, and has since become an investment group centered on AI-related assets such as Arm, the SoftBank Vision Funds and OpenAI.Open the full entry surrendered approximately 48.8 million T-Mobile shares under a separate arrangement. T-Mobile thereby acquired Sprint’s customers and 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum.⁠[4][2][4][2][2][4]

On the day the merger closed, Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert succeeded John Legere as CEO a month ahead of schedule, and Legere remained on the board until the June 2020 annual meeting.⁠[2][5][2]

To obtain regulatory approval for the merger, T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Sprint, SoftBank and DISH entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on April 1, 2020. Under the arrangement, DISH acquired the prepaid business operated under the Boost Mobile and Sprint prepaid brands on July 1, 2020, with T-Mobile providing network services for up to seven years; DISH also agreed to buy all of Sprint’s 800 MHz spectrum (about 13.5 MHz nationwide) for approximately $3.6 billion.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

After the merger, Deutsche Telekom obtained majority voting control through proxy agreements with SoftBank. At the end of 2020, Deutsche Telekom and SoftBank directly or indirectly held approximately 43.4% and 8.6% of T-Mobile’s common stock, respectively; at the end of 2021 their holdings were approximately 43.6% and 24.7%.⁠[4][4][6]

In March 2021, the FCC announced that T-Mobile had won 142 C-Band licenses in Auction 107 for $9.3 billion, averaging 40 MHz in the top markets and 27 MHz nationwide, with about $1.0 billion in additional relocation costs to be paid through 2024.⁠[6][6]

In August 2021, T-Mobile disclosed that its systems had been subject to a criminal cyberattack that compromised data of millions of current, former and prospective customers, in some cases including Social Security numbers, names, addresses, dates of birth and driver’s license numbers; with outside cybersecurity experts, the company closed the unauthorized access and notified those affected. On July 22, 2022, it agreed to settle the resulting consolidated class action for $350 million and committed an additional $150 million to data security in 2022 and 2023.⁠[6][6][6][7][7]

In September 2022, the FCC announced that T-Mobile had won 7,156 licenses in Auction 108 (2.5 GHz spectrum) for $304 million; the FCC issued the licenses on February 29, 2024.⁠[8][8]

On January 5, 2023, T-Mobile identified that a bad actor had been obtaining data through a single application programming interface (API) without authorization since around November 25, 2022, affecting approximately 37 million current postpaid and prepaid accounts and including names, billing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, account numbers and plan information, though many accounts did not include the full data set.⁠[7][7][7][7]

On April 29, 2024, the FCC announced fines against the four major wireless carriers for selling customer location data, fining T-Mobile $80,080,000 and Sprint, by then merged into T-Mobile, $12,240,000. The FCC found that both companies sold customer location information to aggregators that resold it to third parties without valid consent or reasonable safeguards; T-Mobile’s program ran until February 8, 2019, and Sprint’s until May 31, 2019. T-Mobile argued that location information is not protected customer proprietary network information and that it lacked fair notice.⁠[9][10][11][9][10][11][10]

T-Mobile and Sprint paid the penalties under protest and on June 27, 2024 petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for review; a three-judge panel denied the petitions on August 15, 2025, the court denied rehearing and rehearing en banc on January 23, 2026, and T-Mobile said it intended to petition the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari.⁠[8][8]

On May 1, 2024, T-Mobile completed its merger with Ka’ena Corporation, making it and its subsidiary Mint Mobile wholly owned subsidiaries; the upfront consideration was $420 million in cash and 3,264,952 T-Mobile shares valued at $536 million, plus a performance-based earnout payable on August 1, 2026.⁠[12][12][12]

On September 30, 2024, the FCC announced a settlement with T-Mobile resolving its investigations into the company’s 2021, 2022 and 2023 data breaches, which affected millions of current, former or prospective customers and customers of resellers (MVNOs) using its network, exposing information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. T-Mobile agreed to pay a $15.75 million civil penalty and spend an additional $15.75 million over two years to strengthen cybersecurity, including designating a Chief Information Security Officer who reports regularly to the board, moving toward a “zero trust” architecture and adopting phishing-resistant multifactor authentication; the Enforcement Bureau agreed to terminate its investigations.⁠[13][13][13][13][13][13][13][13]

As a condition of the Sprint merger, the U.S. Department of Justice required T-Mobile to sell Sprint’s 800 MHz spectrum; the intended buyer, Dish, could not raise about $3.6 billion, and no bidder met the target price in a subsequent T-Mobile auction. On March 20, 2025, private investment firm Grain ManagementGrain ManagementGrain Management (Grain Management, LLC) is a private investment firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., founded by David Grain in 2007, that invests exclusively in digital infrastructure such as fiber networks, wireless spectrum, cell towers, data centers and telecommunications services. In 2026 it acquired a nationwide portfolio of 800 MHz low-band spectrum from T-Mobile and then agreed to sell that spectrum to SpaceX, a transaction still pending approval by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.Open the full entry announced an agreement with T-Mobile and exclusive discussions to acquire all of its 800 MHz spectrum; Dirk Mosa, T-Mobile’s Senior Vice President for spectrum, said the company had already deployed most of the Grain 600 MHz spectrum it gained access to through the deal.⁠[14][15][16][16]

On May 30, 2025, T-Mobile signed an agreement with Grain affiliates NEWLEVEL IV, L.P. and NEWLEVEL, LLC to exchange its 800 MHz licenses for $2.9 billion in cash and Grain’s 600 MHz licenses, which T-Mobile was already using under lease; after Grain achieves a certain return on invested capital, T-Mobile may also share in future proceeds from Grain’s monetization of the 800 MHz licenses.⁠[17][17][17]

On April 1, 2025, a joint venture between T-Mobile and an EQT fund completed the acquisition of fiber-to-the-home platform Lumos; on July 24, a joint venture with KKR completed the acquisition of fiber-to-the-home platform Metronet, for which T-Mobile invested $4.6 billion that quarter. Both ventures moved to a wholesale model in which T-Mobile is the anchor tenant owning residential and small business customer relationships.⁠[8][8][8][8][8]

On August 1, 2025, T-Mobile completed its acquisition of United States Cellular’s wireless operations and select spectrum assets, agreed on May 24, 2024, for an aggregate price of approximately $4.4 billion, payable in cash and the assumption of up to $2.0 billion of debt; UScellular retained its other spectrum and its towers.⁠[8][12][12][8]

On September 22, 2025, T-Mobile announced that Chief Operating Officer Srini Gopalan would succeed Mike Sievert as CEO. Gopalan joined T-Mobile as COO on March 1, 2025, after nearly four years on its board, and previously served at Deutsche Telekom as board member for Europe and, from 2021, as CEO of its German business. On November 1, 2025, Srinivasan Gopalan became President and CEO, and Sievert became Vice Chairman of the company and of its board.⁠[18][18][18][8]

On May 14, 2026, T-Mobile announced an agreement in principle with AT&T and Verizon to form a joint venture that would pool certain spectrum resources and help satellite providers reach more customers through a unified platform, in order to end wireless dead zones in the United States, including rural areas. On October 1, the three signed the joint venture agreement, with Paul Roth as interim CEO; the venture is managed by a board with representatives of all three partners, and each carrier’s existing satellite agreements remain in place.⁠[17][19][19][19][19]

In June 2026, the FCC announced that T-Mobile had won 102 licenses in Auction 113 (AWS-3 spectrum) for $278 million. In the same period, T-Mobile agreed to acquire Comcast’s 600 MHz spectrum licenses for between $1.2 billion and $3.3 billion in cash; a first set of licenses closed on June 2, 2026, with the remainder targeted for the first half of 2028.⁠[17][17][17][17]

On July 1, 2026, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau conditionally approved T-Mobile’s assignment to Grain of 800 MHz licenses (817–824 MHz paired with 862–869 MHz) and Grain’s assignment of 600 MHz licenses to T-Mobile, finding that T-Mobile’s acquisition of the 600 MHz licenses was likely to bring customers greater capacity, speed and reliability. On August 11, Grain announced the completion of its acquisition of the spectrum. Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner said T-Mobile was the biggest winner of the deal, having shed spectrum that was effectively unusable for it in exchange for usable spectrum.⁠[20][20][20][20][21][14]

On October 8, 2026, SpaceX announced a definitive agreement with Grain to acquire the nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio Grain had obtained from T-Mobile, for use by Starlink Mobile; after the news, shares of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon each fell about 6% in after-hours trading.⁠[22][22]

Deutsche Telekom (DT) is T-Mobile’s controlling stockholder and owns the T-Mobile trademarks used in its business. As of July 17, 2026, DT directly or indirectly held approximately 54.3% of T-Mobile’s outstanding common stock and, under a Proxy, Lock-Up and ROFR Agreement with SoftBank Group dated April 1, 2020, had voting control over approximately 55.2%. T-Mobile is therefore a “controlled company” under Nasdaq rules and is not subject to requirements such as a majority of independent directors; Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges chairs T-Mobile’s board.⁠[8][17][17][8][18]

As of October 2026, Srinivasan Gopalan is President and CEO. Positioned as the Un-carrier, T-Mobile operates brands including T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile and Mint Mobile and holds 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, AWS, PCS, 2.5 GHz and millimeter-wave spectrum, controlling an average of 394 MHz of low- and mid-band spectrum nationwide at the end of 2025, including an average of 185 MHz of 2.5 GHz. At the end of 2025 it had approximately 75,000 full-time and part-time employees; it is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, and Overland Park, Kansas, and its common stock trades on Nasdaq under the symbol TMUS.⁠[8][12][8][8][8][8][8]

T-Mobile: Official website: https://www.t-mobile.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[23]

X: Public account: https://x.com/TMobile (opens in a new window)⁠[24]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TMobile (opens in a new window)⁠[24]