Metro by T-Mobile (formerly known as MetroPCS and also known simply as Metro) is an American
prepaid wireless service provider and brand owned by
T-Mobile US
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...
. It previously operated the fifth largest mobile telecommunications network in the United States using
code-division multiple access
Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...
(CDMA). In 2013, the carrier engaged in a
reverse merger
A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...
with T-Mobile US; post-merger, its services were merged under T-Mobile's
UMTS
The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...
and
LTE
LTE may refer to:
Science and technology
* LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard
** LTE Advanced, an enhancement
*** LTE Advanced Pro
* Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq
* ...
network. Metro by T-Mobile competes primarily against
Dish's
Boost Mobile Boost Mobile may refer to:
* Boost Mobile (Australia), an Australian mobile virtual network operator
* Boost Mobile (United States), an American mobile virtual network operator owned by Dish Wireless
* Spark New Zealand
Spark New Zealand Limit ...
,
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
's
Cricket Wireless
Cricket Wireless is an American prepaid wireless service provider, owned by AT&T. It provides wireless services to ten million subscribers in the United States. Cricket Wireless was founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International. AT&T acq ...
and
Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...
's
Visible
Visibility, in meteorology, is a measure of the distance at which an object or light can be seen.
Visibility may also refer to:
* A measure of turbidity in water quality control
* Interferometric visibility, which quantifies interference contrast ...
as part of the wireless service provider brands.
History
Early history
Metro was established in 1994 as General Wireless, Inc., by
Roger Linquist and Malcolm Lorang. ''PCS'' referred to the industry term,
Personal Communications Service
A personal communications service (PCS) is set of communications capabilities that provide a combination of terminal mobility, personal mobility, and service profile management. This class of services comprises several types of wireless voice o ...
. Its service was first launched in 2002.
As of February 2005, MetroPCS had about 1.5 million subscribers in the country. At the time, the company operated through 21 licenses in
Greater Miami
The Miami metropolitan area (also known as Greater Miami, the Tri-County Area, South Florida, or the Gold Coast) is the ninth largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the 34th largest metropolitan area in the world with a ...
,
Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
,
Sarasota
Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
. The company expanded to the
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
and
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
areas later that year.
On April 19, 2007, MetroPCS made its stock market debut. Its $50 million share
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
closed at $27.40, for a market cap of $8 billion. and then expanded over to new york promplty in 2002.
Merger with T-Mobile
In October 2012, the company, known then as MetroPCS, reached an agreement to merge with
T-Mobile USA
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...
. A
reverse merger
A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...
for MetroPCS, the deal closed on May 1, 2013. The combined company, now known as
T-Mobile US
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...
, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
On June 21, 2015, the legacy MetroPCS
CDMA
Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...
network was decommissioned, and customers were migrated to the company's
LTE
LTE may refer to:
Science and technology
* LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard
** LTE Advanced, an enhancement
*** LTE Advanced Pro
* Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq
* ...
network.
At the time of the merger, T-Mobile had about 32 million subscribers, to which MetroPCS added around 9 million.
In 2012, there was a series of armed robberies in Metro stores which was attributed to low security measures. In the same year, T-Mobile and Metro became some of the earliest companies to offer unlimited data plans.
Rebranding
On September 24, 2018, T-Mobile announced that it would relaunch the brand as Metro by T-Mobile (a move that would take effect two weeks later), introducing new unlimited plans offering bundled features such as
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...
subscriptions and
Google One
Google One is a subscription service developed by Google that offers expanded cloud storage and is intended for the consumer market. Google One paid plans offer cloud storage starting at 100 gigabytes, up to a maximum of 30 terabytes, a ...
storage, and announcing that the brand aims to be the first prepaid mobile carrier to offer
5G in 2019. T-Mobile stated that these changes would help to reduce the negative stigmas associated with MetroPCS's prepaid services, by aligning them with other well-known brands as value-added services, and placing a larger emphasis on its use of T-Mobile's network. The renamed carrier launched in early October 2018. At the time of the name change, T-Mobile's subscriber number had increased to around 75 million and Metro's had doubled to around 18 million users and had increased their nationwide market reach from around 12 to 100 markets.
Corporate affairs
Products
Metro is
T-Mobile US
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...
's branch of prepaid services, currently offering a selection of 31 smartphones and four data plans as of March 18, 2019.
Metro conducts its operations on their physical store locations only, in contrast with other prepaid brands that offer services on physical locations and online.
Advertising
In February 2019, the company announced a new long-term advertising campaign featuring
Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...
player
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis Sina Ugo Antetokounmpo (born Adetokunbo; December 6, 1994) is a Greek-Nigerian professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Antetokounmpo's country of origin, in addition to his s ...
.
Reception
Network quality
The launch of MetroPCS's LTE network was met with mixed reviews. In November 2010,
Gigaom
Gigaom is a technology focused analyst firm and media company. The company evolved from a blog which offered news, analysis, and opinions on startup companies, emerging technologies, and other technology related topics. It was started by Om Malik ...
's Kevin Tofel noted that although the LTE network was based on 4G technology, "the infrastructure MetroPCS is using keeps speeds in the range of older 3G networks". Tofel measured data speeds "far slower than T-Mobile's HSPA+ network" but considered that users with only basic data requirements would find the no-contract deal "refreshing." Referencing Tofel's review, Laptop Mag's
Corvida Raven
Corvida Raven is an American writer, technological artist, entrepreneur and public speaker who lives and works out of New York City, New York. She has been garnering national attention since the age of 19 for her blog, shegeeks.net, and other pr ...
concluded that MetroPCS "probably isn't using the best LTE technology."
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
's
Farhad Manjoo
Farhad Manjoo (born 1978) is an American journalist. Manjoo was a staff writer for ''Slate'' magazine from 2008 to September 2013, when they left to join ''The Wall Street Journal''. In January 2014, they joined ''The New York Times'', replacing ...
panned the service by suggesting that MetroPCS was able to roll out 4G coverage sooner and cheaper than its competitors by offering only the Samsung Craft, a
feature phone
A feature phone (also spelled featurephone) is a type or class of mobile phone that retains the form factor of earlier generations of mobile telephones, typically with press-button based inputs and a small non-touch display. They tend to use an ...
with sub-standard internet capabilities, as its launch device. Due to the quality of the device (described as being "designed not just to frustrate users but to get us to swear off ever using any phone again"), the network, and MetroPCS's decision to block video streaming services aside from YouTube under its "unlimited web" plan, Manjoo considered it a device designed to disappoint users excited for 4G.
Marketing
MetroPCS attracted criticism in 2010 for an advertising campaign featuring two
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
characters, Ranjit and Chad (the former being played by veteran Indian actor
Anjul Nigam
Anjul Nigam (born December 15, 1965) is an Indian-born American actor, producer, and writer.
Early life and education
Nigam was born in Kanpur, India. He is a graduate of Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Connecticut and the New York Universi ...
), hosting a phone-in show titled ''Tech & Talk''. Their content was believed to be stereotypical and offensive.
Following the T-Mobile merger, MetroPCS introduced a campaign to highlight its inclusion of all related taxes and fees in advertised prices. The campaign was ridiculed by many people who interpreted an unintended
double meaning
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...
in the slogan, referring to the
menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that make pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eggs a ...
.
Awards
Metro ranked first in customer experience among the non-contract full-service carriers in the 2018 and 2019
J.D. Power
J.D. Power is an American consumer research, data, and analytics firm based in Troy, Michigan. The company was founded in 1968 by James David Power III. It conducts surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior for the aut ...
U.S. Wireless Purchase Experience Non-Contract Performance Studies.
See also
*
T-Mobile US
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...
*
List of mobile network operators of the Americas
This is a list of mobile network operators of the Americas.
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
The country has a 127% penetration rate.
Argentina
The country has a 147% penetration rate = 61.2m mobile subscribers (February 2014)
Aruba
The country ...
References
External links
*
Official Instagram site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metro by T-Mobile
T-Mobile US
Telecommunications companies established in 1994
Retail companies established in 1994
American companies established in 1994
Deutsche Telekom
Mobile phone companies of the United States
Mobile virtual network operators
Companies based in Richardson, Texas
2013 mergers and acquisitions
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange