T-Mobile To Launch LTE Network, Hurt by iPhone 4S

The past few months have been quite crazy for T-Mobile. The company has simply been unable to keep up with its rivals. The fact that it does not offer iPhones yet has not been positive for the company’s fortunes. T-Mobile is soldiering on and is expected to launch a LTE network in 2012. That is part of the company’s new $1.4b network modernization investment plan for the next couple of years.

In 2012 and 2013, T-Mobile USA will invest to get the business back to growth, including an incremental $1.4 billion investment in its network modernization initiative, which will total a $4 billion investment over time

said Philipp Humm, CEO and President, T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile has been struggling a lot lately. It has experienced net customer losses of 526,000 in the 4th quarter of 2012. Other figures are not that pretty either. The company is blaming that partially on the fact that it does not have the iPhone 4S:

The sequential and year-on-year increase in customer losses is a result of intense competitive pressure from the launch of the iPhone 4S by three nationwide competitors in the fourth quarter of 2011. In addition, higher connected device deactivations contributed significantly to the net customer loss in the fourth quarter of 2011, including a nearly 265,000 deactivation related to one customer with a yearly service revenue impact of less than $1 million.

T-Mobile was planning to merge with AT&T before the move was stopped by the regulators. The spectrum gained from AT&T as the break up fee should help T-Mobile a bit. Of course, better phone selections could always help T-Mobile stop the bleeding.