T-Mobile US has unveiled its three-year growth plan at its Capital Markets Day event, forecasting $9 to $10 billion in annual capital expenditures (Capex) to fund network leadership.
NETWORK
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert highlighted T-Mobile’s target to add 12 million 5G broadband customers by 2028 from 7-8 million at present.
T-Mobile’s fiber coverage will reach 12-15 million by 2028 complementing its investment in 5G broadband.
T-Mobile is targeting 75 percent fewer inbound contacts.
T-Mobile announced its AI-RAN (radio access network) Innovation Center in partnership with Nvidia, Ericsson, and Nokia to focus on using AI to enhance mobile networks.
T-Mobile will strengthen focus on its Customer-Driven Coverage (CDC) approach to network investments. Its technology deployments include Massive Multiple-input/multiple-out (Massive MIMO), Voice over New Radio (VoNR), four-carrier aggregation and the 5G Advanced.
T-Mobile’s 5G availability is more than five times that of the closest rival. Opensignal says T-Mobile 5G users spend more than 8x the time connected to 5G than Verizon users and over 5x more than those on AT&T.
Ookla says T-Mobile’s 5G download speed is more than 2 times faster than Verizon and AT&T.
T-Mobile says 90 percent of its sites have 5G low-band and 80 percent have multiple mid-band.
AI FOCUS
The telecom giant’s plan is driven by strong customer additions and innovative collaborations with AI leaders like OpenAI.
T-Mobile, as one of the top three U.S. carriers, is seeing increased adoption of its premium plans, which offer streaming packages along with unlimited data. The company aims to return up to $50 billion to shareholders through 2027 via share buybacks and dividends.
REVENUE TARGET
Financially, T-Mobile anticipates service revenue between $75 billion and $76 billion and core adjusted EBITDA between $38 billion and $39 billion by 2027. Analysts had forecasted a free cash flow of around $18.9 billion for that year.
T-Mobile says it aims to enable 100 percent of upgrades and the majority of customer activations to be done digitally. T-Mobile has launched AI-driven decision-making platform, IntentCX, in partnership with OpenAI, designed for personalized customer service solutions.
T-Mobile US is targeting free cash flow between $18 billion and $19 billion by 2027.
Despite these announcements, industry analysts, such as Craig Moffett from MoffettNathanson, noted that T-Mobile’s outlook aligns with expectations, maintaining the company’s reputation as a top player in the telecom sector, Reuters news report said.
Baburajan Kizhakedath