What a year it’s been.
Early on, wireless carriers joined efforts to Keep Americans Connected and redeployed resources when work-from-home orders shifted traffic from urban centers to suburban and less populated regions. Throughout the pandemic, wireless remained an essential service, and then some.
Store closures – both temporary and permanent – and T-Mobile’s post-merger moves were among the big topics during the past year. As we say a long-overdue goodbye to 2020, here’s a look at some of the top stories on FierceWireless during the past year.
10. Metro by T-Mobile dealers fight for prepaid – Dealers who sell Metro by T-Mobile prepaid services voiced grievances over practices the newly merged company was making.
9. Metro dealers accuse T-Mobile of trying to poach customers – Dealers circulated an online petition seeking to keep their businesses viable and competitive.
8. FierceWireless presents its 2020 class of Rising Stars – In October, FierceWireless cast a spotlight on executives who are on the rise in wireless.
7. What AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile don’t want you to know about their 5G deployments – For all the talk about 5G, operators still prefer to keep some things to themselves.
6. T-Mobile advised to stop claims about 5G reliability – The National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs recommended that T-Mobile stop claims that its 5G network is more reliable than competitors’ 4G or 5G networks.
5. T-Mobile deactivates Sprint’s legacy 2.5 GHz 5G ahead of re-deployments – Sprint’s legacy 5G service using 2.5 GHz was deactivated as T-Mobile continued to re-deploy the coveted mid-band spectrum into its new integrated 5G network.
4. Verizon tries to prevent T-Mobile from getting more 600 MHz spectrum – Verizon appealed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to prevent T-Mobile from getting its hands on leases of more 600 MHz spectrum.
3. T-Mobile closing hundreds more Metro stores: reports – T-Mobile closed down more Metro by T-Mobile prepaid stores, and sources said Covid-19 wasn’t the culprit.
2. T-Mobile ‘taking the gloves off’ with new 4-line $100 unlimited plan – In July, T-Mobile introduced its first unlimited plan since merging with Sprint, with an offer of four lines for $100 per month, including 5G access for those with compatible phones.
1. Down to the final 2 in the FierceWireless Most Powerful People in Wireless – The FierceWireless 2020 “powerful people” tournament came down to a contest between an operator – Telefonica – and a vendor – Mavenir.
