T-Mobile jabs at Verizon in new ad that highlights its 700 MHz LTE coverage expansion

T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) took a dig at Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) with its newest TV commercial touting its expanding LTE coverage, tweaking Verizon's recent TV ad that featured geese. The new T-Mobile ad is meant to highlight its growing 700 MHz A Block deployment and improved coverage and in-building penetration.

"There's a network that never stops improving, that's grown faster than any other," a narrator intones as the commercial shows mountain vistas. The ad says the network now covers "nearly every American, and these geese" as it shows a flock of geese flying in unison. The voiceover then notes that, "But, it's not who you think." Verizon ran a recent ad featuring geese that "return home" to Verizon after suffering poor network quality and buffering on their phones, presumably on another network like T-Mobile's.

T-Mobile is touting its 700 MHz deployment as "Extended Range LTE" that "reaches twice as far" and is "four times better in buildings." The ad then intones, "Think you know our LTE coverage? Think again!" and shows how T-Mobile plans to expand its LTE coverage from 2014 to 2015.

Last week at an investor conference T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray said the carrier's LTE network now covers 293 million POPs today and will be above 300 million by year-end, beating its goal. He also said that of the 190 million POPs covered by T-Mobile's Band 12 700 MHz A Block spectrum, T-Mobile has around 165 million deployed today.

So far this year T-Mobile has added 400,000 square miles of LTE coverage and will add another 600,000 square miles by year end. Most of that will be through the continued deployment of the 700 MHz spectrum in rural areas, which is opening up new market opportunities for T-Mobile where it did not have a network presence before. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said at the conference T-Mobile will continue to bring LTE coverage to around 260,000 homes every single week for the rest of the year.

Ray said T-Mobile has succeeded in creating "the most dense mid-band network in the U.S." and that its 5x5 MHz 700 MHz deployment has been enough to "make a great start" on deploying low-band spectrum.

Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 6s and 6s Plus support Band 12, and T-Mobile is so confident that its LTE coverage has improved that it announced a lifetime coverage satisfaction guarantee. For as long as customers use their iPhone 6s or 6s Plus on T-Mobile's network, if they aren't completely satisfied with their coverage experience they can return the device in the first month of service and get a full refund. After that, T-Mobile said it will unlock the device and refund up to a full month of service.

For more:
- see this AdWeek article

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