We learned earlier this month that merging with Sprint helped T-Mobile to pass AT&T and become the #2 US carrier in terms of total customers, but it turns out that that’s not the only metric in which T-Mo has surpassed AT&T.
T-Mobile now has more retail stores than any other postpaid carrier in the US. That’s according to Jeff Moore of Wave7 Research, who says that T-Mo overtook Verizon and AT&T after it retired the Sprint brand and turned Sprint stores into T-Mobile shops earlier this month.
Verizon used to have the most retail stores of any postpaid carrier in the US, but T-Mobile now has hundreds more retail locations, says Wave7. T-Mo has around 2,000 more retail stores than AT&T.
T-Mo is beating out its competitors in prepaid store count, too. There are more Metro by T-Mobile retail stores than AT&T’s Cricket Wireless and Dish’s Boost Mobile.
Wave7 suggests that T-Mobile could be expanding its presence at other major retail stores. They say that there is transitional “Sprint now part of T-Mobile” branding at places like Walmart and Best Buy, which could see T-Mo service and devices being sold at those retail stores as well.
Not all of the news regarding T-Mobile’s retail presence is good. Wave7 reports that T-Mobile’s postpaid store count is down around 15% compared to late 2019 when there were around 8,800 combined T-Mo and Sprint stores. As it integrates Sprint and its operations, T-Mo has been closing down redundant locations.
Sprint may have been the #4 US carrier before merging with T-Mobile, but it was still one of the four major US carriers and so it’s not a huge surprise to see T-Mo become the leader in terms of postpaid retail stores post-merger. And while it may be closing some redundant store locations, getting T-Mobile sales back at Walmart and Best Buy would help to make up for those closures by getting T-Mo devices and service in front of more consumers.
Thanks Jeffrey!
Source: FierceWireless