T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS) Business Profile

What it does

T-Mobile US sells wireless phone and internet services to consumers, businesses and wholesale partners. Founded in 2001, it has headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, and Overland Park, Kansas. Srinivasan Gopalan is its chief executive officer.

The company operates a nationwide wireless network using licensed radio spectrum. Customers connect through phones and other devices, while households and businesses can also use its network for fixed wireless broadband: an internet connection delivered over the mobile network to a gateway at a home or business. T-Mobile also offers fiber internet in some areas.

Customers can choose postpaid plans, where they generally pay after receiving service, or prepaid plans, where they generally pay in advance. T-Mobile sells devices and accessories alongside those plans, including smartphones, tablets, wearables and broadband gateways. Its brands include T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile and Mint Mobile; business customers are served under T-Mobile for Business.

The company also sells network access to wholesale partners that manage their own customer relationships. Its T-Life app lets customers perform transactions such as adding a line or upgrading a device. T-Mobile has introduced T-Mix plans that let customers choose and change their plan benefits. It is also working with Amazon Web Services on Kinetic Edge, combining its network and distributed computing infrastructure with cloud and AI services.

How it makes money

T-Mobile reports its business as a single wireless segment. In FY2025, total revenue was $88.3 billion.

Its principal revenue source is service: customers pay for wireless communications and broadband. Postpaid customers generally receive service before paying, while prepaid customers pay in advance. Plans offer different combinations of connectivity and benefits. The company’s premium plans have included unlimited talk, text and data, streaming subscriptions and other features; its Essentials plan offers a more basic option. T-Mix adds a choice of benefits that customers can change as their needs change.

Postpaid phone revenue was $49.4 billion in FY2025, or 56.0% of total revenue. Postpaid other revenue, which includes services beyond phone plans, was $8.5 billion. The company also earns prepaid service revenue and charges wholesale partners for access to its network. These partners sell services to their own customers under commercial agreements with T-Mobile.

Equipment revenue was $16.0 billion in FY2025. Customers can buy phones, tablets, wearables and gateways as well as accessories. Qualified customers can finance all or part of a device or accessory purchase, generally over 24 months. Service relationships can also generate revenue from complementary offerings such as device protection, financial services and advertising.

In Q3 2026, postpaid service revenue grew 9% year over year, and total service revenue grew 6%. T-Mobile expects approximately $76.8 billion in total service revenue for full-year 2026.

Customers and how it sells

T-Mobile served 142.4 million postpaid and prepaid customers as of December 31, 2025. Its postpaid base includes consumers and business customers using phones, broadband connections, tablets, hotspots, wearables and other connected devices. Prepaid customers are served through T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile.

In 2025, postpaid customers generated 81% of service revenues, prepaid customers generated 15%, and wholesale and other services accounted for 4%. Wholesale partners manage their own customer relationships and sell services using T-Mobile’s network. T-Mobile recently won the top spot in the Department of Justice’s wireless purchasing contract.

The company reaches customers through its own T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile stores, websites, apps and customer care channels, as well as national retailers. It also sells devices to dealers and other distributors for resale. T-Life had 32 million monthly active users in Q3 2026; during the quarter, over 80% of upgrades and half of phone-line activations were completed digitally, either by customers themselves or with assistance from associates.

Substantially all of T-Mobile’s revenue in 2025 was earned in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Suppliers and costs

T-Mobile sells devices manufactured by various suppliers, including smartphones, tablets, wearables and broadband gateways. Its operations also depend on network equipment, spectrum access, cell sites and connections that carry traffic across the network. It continues to lease some spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band.

The company’s most significant expenses relate to operating and expanding its network, providing devices, acquiring and retaining customers, and compensating employees. Many significant costs, including many tower and backhaul agreements, have fixed rates established through long-term contracts. T-Mobile had approximately 75,000 full-time and part-time employees as of December 31, 2025.

T-Mobile expects total operating expenses to increase in 2026. It points to depreciation from assets added as it builds out its network, higher equipment costs from expected unit sales, and higher service and selling costs, including costs associated with the UScellular acquisition. The company expects approximately $10 billion in cash capital expenditures for full-year 2026.

Its supplier-screening process covers risks including corruption, sanctions, cybersecurity, human rights and environmental matters. T-Mobile also monitors current suppliers for policy violations and risks.

Competitive position

T-Mobile competes with AT&T and Verizon in wireless communications and fixed wireless broadband. Its wireless competitors also include smaller and regional providers such as Charter, Comcast, EchoStar, Cox and Altice USA. In broadband, it faces cable, DSL, fiber, other fixed wireless and satellite providers. Competition involves pricing, promotions, network quality, customer experience and product offerings; some rivals use discounts or bundles.

T-Mobile was the second-largest U.S. wireless provider by total postpaid and prepaid customers as of year-end 2025. Its network uses low-band, mid-band and millimeter-wave spectrum, and its fixed wireless broadband service uses excess capacity on that network. The company controlled an average of 394 MHz of combined low- and mid-band spectrum nationwide as of December 31, 2025.

Our reading: T-Mobile’s spectrum holdings and nationwide network are a meaningful competitive asset because they support both mobile service and fixed wireless broadband, although network investment and quality remain competitive factors.

Our reading: Its customer base, brands and retail and digital channels provide distribution advantages, but competitors also have established offerings and can compete through pricing and bundles.

The company uses T-Life for transactions and introduced T-Mix to let customers choose plan benefits. Our reading: These features give T-Mobile additional ways to retain and serve customers, but the evidence does not establish that they prevent customers from switching to rivals.

Growth opportunities

T-Mobile is pursuing growth by adding wireless accounts, increasing the services customers take and expanding broadband. In Q3 2026, it added 274,000 net postpaid accounts and reported over 4% year-over-year growth in postpaid average revenue per account. The company expects approximately 1 million net account additions for full-year 2026.

Fixed wireless broadband uses excess capacity on T-Mobile’s existing network. The company is targeting 15 million broadband customers by 2030 and says it is ahead of the pace needed to reach that goal. It is also expanding fiber through joint ventures. T-Mobile targets 3 million to 4 million fiber customers by 2030.

In 2025, T-Mobile completed joint acquisitions of the Lumos and Metronet fiber platforms. Under the resulting wholesale arrangements, T-Mobile owns the residential customer relationships. It also completed its acquisition of the UScellular wireless business in 2025 and expects the combined network footprint to enhance rural 5G coverage.

For business customers, T-Mobile is developing services that combine connectivity and computing. It is partnering with Amazon Web Services on Kinetic Edge, a distributed infrastructure for physical AI that combines T-Mobile’s network and edge infrastructure with cloud and AI services. The company also plans to use digital and AI tools in customer service. These initiatives sit alongside its continued investment in network coverage and capacity.

Structural risks

• Competition and retention: T-Mobile operates in a competitive industry where promotions, pricing, network quality and bundled offers affect customers’ choices. Its ability to attract and retain customers is important to generating service, equipment and other revenue.

• Cybersecurity and network reliability: The company faces persistent cyberattacks from parties seeking unauthorized access to confidential information or disruption of systems. Hardware or software failures, outages and supplier delays can also affect operations.

• Regulation and spectrum: The FCC regulates licensing and network operations. Changes in rules or adverse regulatory action could harm service delivery or revenue, while the loss of licenses or penalties could affect the business. T-Mobile may also need to compete to acquire spectrum that it currently leases.

• Debt and funding: T-Mobile says its substantial indebtedness could reduce business flexibility, make debt harder to service and increase borrowing costs. Additional debt may also limit its ability to borrow for its business strategy.

• Acquisition integration: Integrating acquired networks, systems, customers and operations can raise costs and divert management attention. T-Mobile expects substantial expenses from coordinating and integrating the UScellular business, and those expenses could exceed its historical costs.

• Capacity: T-Mobile identifies radio uplink capacity as an area to monitor, particularly in dense sectors as use of physical AI and AI agents grows.

Bottom line

Our reading

Our reading: T-Mobile is a network-based subscription and device business, with postpaid service providing much of its revenue and broadband offering another use for its network capacity. Its spectrum, customer base and distribution support its competitive position, but maintaining that position requires continuing investment against established rivals. Growth in broadband and acquired operations comes with integration, funding and capacity risks.