T-Mobile aims to become the No. 1 carrier in the US

T-Mobile has some ambitious plans for the coming months: it aims to match Verizon’s wireless coverage to become the fastest and the most widely available carrier – or rather Un-carrier – in the US.

Earlier today, we reported that T-Mobile is now the fastest network in the US. America’s third-largest carrier has been aggressively expanding its service across the US, especially with its Un-carrier initiative.

According to OpenSignal’s State of Mobile Networks report, T-Mobile now has the fastest overall download speed both in LTE and 3G.

It certainly surprised me given that just three years ago, I didn’t even have 3G with T-Mobile in the rural, uninhabited town of Hanover, New Hampshire, but now, almost the entire state of New Hampshire is covered by T-Mobile’s LTE network.

In fact, the only two areas where T-Mobile didn’t rank number one were LTE availability and LTE latency. Verizon has the most widely available LTE network, and Sprint has the shortest LTE latency time.

Well, it seems like T-Mobile is eager to change that: according to T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray, the carrier will be able to match Verizon’s availability within the next 12 months:

We plan to materially close the gap by the end of the year. There are no trade-offs today.

T-Mobile’s ability to rapidly expand its LTE coverage in the US will heavily depend on the ongoing auction of the 600MHz spectrum. With AT&T and Verizon all vying to acquire the spectrum, we’d be curious to see just how T-Mobile plans to take on America’s largest network.

Another important factor that will become more and more pertinent is 5G. With Verizon’s recent partnership with Samsung to bring the world one step closer to the technology, the 600MHz spectrum auction will prove itself to be immensely important in the 5G race.

Are you on T-Mobile’s network? Have you seen improvements in speed or coverage with T-Mobile? Let us know by commenting below!