It's taken some time, but T-Mobile finally seems set to expand its home internet offering. At its analyst day in 2021, it stated that it aimed to have 7-8 million customers on its then-new home broadband service by 2025. Today it is at 5.6 million users and now seems set to grow.
At its 2024 investor-focused "Capital Markets Day" in San Francisco, the carrier revealed its new 5G home internet goal: Get 12 million users by 2028.
"Basically we're going faster than expected on implementing the most advanced technologies in 5G," T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert tells CNET about the expansion, noting that a combination of factors have come into play that will allow it to reach more users including better marketing, better use of spectrum and more efficient routers and modems.
A new router/modem product coming in 2025 will be able to support Wi-Fi 7 and take advantage of more advanced networking radios to run faster and more efficiently on T-Mobile's network.
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"All of those things taken together allow us to move from 7-8 million as a potential maximum size of the business to 12 million."
He notes that even with the expansion it is only growing 5G home internet in areas where it has extra room on its network to support the service without impacting its traditional wireless users.
The carrier says it currently has a waitlist of "more than 1 million potential customers" for its 5G home broadband service.
To help determine where it has room, the carrier is taking advantage of what it calls a "fallow capacity model" that regularly updates based on usage, network upgrades and uptake of services like home broadband. So if T-Mobile deploys more spectrum in a given area, the model can let it know that more 5G home broadband spots are available. Similarly, if a neighborhood has an increase in 5G home internet or wireless usage, it can scale back the openings to not overwhelm the network.
The system is regularly updating, which is why one day you may not be eligible for service and the next you could be able to sign up.
Its new 5G broadband expansion comes as T-Mobile is similarly gearing up to deploy a more traditional fiber internet offering that can offer faster, symmetrical gigabit speeds. The carrier has been making purchases and moves to begin developing its fiber footprint across the country.
Sievert sees the deployment of fiber as "totally complementary" to one another, aiming to cover at least 12-15 million homes with fiber by 2030.
Mike Katz, T-Mobile's president of marketing, strategy and products, tells CNET that the two products can also work together as far as opening up slots for the other. If a 5G home broadband customer moves to T-Mobile's fiber offering "you kind of get a win-win."
"That customer gets upgraded, gets the performance they're looking for, and we open up a slot because of fallow capacity for another customer" to get 5G home internet.
T-Mobile's expansion into home internet comes amid growing competition and consolidation in the space. Rival Verizon recently announced plans to acquire Frontier in a $20 billion deal while AT&T has been bumping its fiber speeds and footprint while also getting into 5G home internet with its Internet Air product. The increased activity has also led to shakeups in the offerings from providers like Comcast and Charter, each of which has been aggressively promoting "double plays" that offer home broadband and wireless service to counter the moves by the carriers.
Earlier this week, Charter introduced a new bundle of its home broadband with two lines of its wireless service (which runs on Verizon's network).
"A lot of people are like, 'oh gosh, you know, Verizon is buying Frontier and like, you know, T-Mobile, are you freaked out about convergence and like, have to do this to defend your mobile business?'" Katz says when discussing the competitive landscape and if T-Mobile is worried about how it fits with its new fiber play. "The answer is absolutely not."
"Mobile is a very considered sale, and we haven't seen any evidence that people's broadband selection influences their mobile selection," he says.