The company is also offering customers a Personal CellSpot, according to a statement yesterday, a day after Apple Inc. introduced a new iPhone with Wi-Fi-calling capability. For a $25 deposit, T-Mobile subscribers receive a device similar to a Wi-Fi router that they can install in their home or office to increase signal strength inside.
T-Mobile, the No. 4 wireless carrier in the U.S., is trying to close the gap with third-place Sprint Corp. The companies have been engaged in a price fight since an
effort to merge them collapsed last month. T-Mobile Chief Executive Officer John Legere reiterated a forecast to surpass Sprint in subscribers by December.
“Put a fork in it -- it’s happening by the end of the year,” Legere said yesterday at an event in San Francisco. T-Mobile had 51 million total customers at the end of June, trailing Sprint’s 55 million.
T-Mobile had record monthly customer gains in August, and this quarter it has added four users for every one that leaves for Sprint, Legere said.
The Wi-Fi announcement is an effort to encourage more cord-cutters, or people who have only mobile phones and no landlines. Some consumers are reluctant to get rid of their home phones because dead zones inside the house make it impossible to receive calls.
Personal CellSpot
The Personal CellSpot has to be plugged into an outlet and connected to broadband Internet. T-Mobile also started a partnership with Gogo Inc. to give customers free texting and voice-mail access while on airplanes.Apple said this week that its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which will go on sale Sept. 19, support Wi-Fi calling, including the ability to hand off calls from Wi-Fi to cellular networks as users move beyond the range of a Wi-Fi access point.
Customers who don’t have phones that support Wi-Fi calling can trade them in, Legere said.
T-Mobile has said it expects to add 3 million to 3.5 million monthly subscribers this year. The Bellevue, Washington-based carrier is majority owned by Deutsche Telekom AG.
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