T-Mobile continues to push for its merger with Sprint by emphasizing the uncarrier angle, particularly when it comes to becoming a disruptor in home (fixed wireless) space.
The company sent out an email Thursday trumpeting its new pilot home internet test, available to a limited number of its existing customers "by invitation only."
It said they should get about 50 Mbps for $50 a month, with "no data caps, no annual service contracts, no hidden fees and no equipment costs."
Related: Hill Gets Wildly Divergent Views of T-Mobile-Sprint
T-Mobile has been billing the merger in Washington has a chance to provide new in-home competition to the "Big Cable" broadband providers, a goal of the FCC, which is vetting the deal. It is also positioning the test in rural and underserved areas. Closing the rural digital divide is another FCC priority.
T-Mobile outlined its in-home plans to the FCC in this filing.
T-Mobile points out that at its current LTE capacity, it can only support about 50,000 homes ("50" seems to be a key figure in this trial), but that "with the scale and capacity of the New T-Mobile, we would cover more than half of U.S. households with 5G broadband service in excess of 100 Mbps by 2024!"
“Two weeks ago, I laid out our plans for home broadband with the New T-Mobile. Now, we’re already hard at work building toward that future,” said T-Mobile CEO John Legere. “We’re walking the walk and laying the foundation for a world where we can take the fight to Big Cable on behalf of consumers and offer real choice, competition and savings to Americans nationwide.”
