T-Mobile Completes MetroPCS Merger

T-Mobile USA has completed its merger with MetroPCS, opening the way for the operator to cover most of the U.S. with 4G LTE. T-Mobile said Wednesday that the combined company will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "TMUS." The combined entity had 43 million subscribers as of March 31, making it the fourth-largest wireless operator in the U.S. (See MetroPCS/T-Mobile Wedding Is On and T-Mobile & MetroPCS Propose Board for the Merged Company.) One of the goals of the merger was to give the combined company the spectrum footprint to really compete with its bigger rivals. "Combining the two companies' spectrum provides a path to at least 20+20 MHz of 4G LTE in approximately 90 percent of the top 25 metro areas in 2014 and beyond," reads the company's statement about the merger completion. The combined company's network covers 283 million people, 200 million of whom are expected to be covered with 4G LTE by the end of 2013. Its total PoP coverage is 301 million -- representing the number of people that it's got the spectrum, but not the network, to theoretically reach. (See T-Mobile's 'Smoking Fast' LTE Goes Live.) — Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile