An additional 452,000 branded postpaid subscriptions and churn of 0.86% should be enough to put a smile on the face of T-Mobile investors as share price soars 9%.

The majority of telcos might be scrapping and scraping against wider industry trends, but T-Mobile investors will be very pleased with how the business is progressing. Not only has the long-awaited merger with Sprint been formally approved, the financial spreadsheets are also proving to be a success.

“Just five weeks ago, we merged with Sprint to create the New T-Mobile, and we’re more excited today than ever before about the massive value creation opportunity and synergy potential that lies ahead,” said CEO Mike Sievert.

“We are off to the races laying the foundation for the future of the New T-Mobile as we work to execute on our business plan and harness the incredible opportunity ahead.”

Source: T-Mobile US Investor Relations

And while these are encouraging figures, the real fun is about to being. Sievert has the pleasure of integrating T-Mobile’s operations with Sprint’s.

Having been formally kicked-off on April 1, the two organisations will become one. This means scaled deployments, rationalising the retail footprint and pushing forward with 5G. The latter is perhaps the most interesting element, and the one which will give the best opportunity to close the gap on AT&T and Verizon.

In terms of a 5G offering, T-Mobile now looks to have the most complete proposition. It has access to mmWave spectrum for high-speed downloads, 600 MHz bands for coverage and, thanks to the Sprint merger, 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum to blend together speed and coverage. This is a 5G assault which ticks all the boxes which is currently in play in Philadelphia with New York next on the roadmap.

T-Mobile still lags behind AT&T and Verizon, but a carefully crafted and aggressive drive towards 5G could shift market dynamics very quickly.

*** Forecast by Omdia over the next twelve months