Year after winning year, T‑Mobile’s Un‑carrier revolution continues to change the wireless industry, delivering the best value and best experiences on America’s largest and fastest nationwide 5G network.
In 2021 we posted our strongest results ever, exceeding not only our own bold goals for profitability and customer growth, but Wall Street expectations as well. By year end, we also further extended our unrivaled 5G network leadership to reach 310M people, 210M of whom are covered by super-fast Ultra Capacity 5G.
This record-setting year was particularly momentous for the Un‑carrier because it was our first full year as a combined company since the close of the Sprint merger. We used our expanded network, scale, and resources to deliver 5G for All and build a more connected and sustainable future for our stakeholders.
In 2021 we laid the foundation of a new Un‑carrier era through great execution and strategic investments—and as we head into 2022 our winning formula uniquely positions T‑Mobile to accelerate growth across multiple paths that have the potential to unlock shareholder value for years to come.
Continuing our trend of unstoppable growth momentum, in 2021 the Un‑carrier saw its best postpaid customer net add growth ever. Our postpaid net customer additions of 5.5M were not only our highest ever, but they also led the industry for the seventh consecutive year.
We also added 1.2M postpaid net accounts—the most in the industry—and more than doubled 2020’s adds. This measure of total billing relationships is an important barometer of wireless network switching, a battle T‑Mobile is clearly winning.
We also delivered 2.9M postpaid phone net adds, up 32% from last year, and our T‑Mobile branded postpaid phone churn in 2021 was the lowest in the industry for the second year in a row. On top of all that, we not only had the highest phone gross adds in the industry, but we had the highest in T‑Mobile history! As of year end, we closed out 2021 with a total net customer count of 108.7M, a record high.
AT&T Inc. historically does not disclose postpaid net account additions.
The results and analysis presented in this report include the impact of T‑Mobile's merger with Sprint Corporation on a prospective basis from the close date of April 1, 2020, and the impact of the acquisition of Shentel's Wireless Assets on a prospective basis from the close date of July 1, 2021. Historical results prior to the respective close dates have not been retroactively adjusted. As such, the year-over-year changes may not be meaningful as further detailed in this annual report.
2021 Financial Results
Core Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow excluding gross payments for the settlement of interest rate swaps are non-GAAP financial measures. Definitions, explanations, and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are provided in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, which is included herewith as a portion of this annual report to stockholders.
Peter Osvaldik
We’ve said it before, and it proved true again in 2021: Put customers first and results will follow. Customers flocked to the best value proposition on the nation’s largest and fastest 5G network, leading to yet another record-setting year of Service Revenues, record Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities, and record Free Cash Flow.
The Un‑carrier has a proven track record of converting customer growth into revenue growth, and most importantly, investing in the network, products, and services that bring even more happy customers. T‑Mobile’s synergy-backed model enables conversion of record service revenues into industry-leading cash flow growth. Year after year, this is how we win—and this journey is just getting started.
With America’s ONLY nationwide stand-alone 5G network, T‑Mobile is the clear leader in the 5G race.
In 2021, we set an audacious goal of getting Ultra Capacity 5G to 200M people, and once again we crushed that goal, reaching 210M at year’s end.
To understand the magnitude of this unprecedented feat, it takes roughly three times the number of cell‑site upgrades to get from 100M to 200M—and we did it in just one year!
And don’t forget that at the end of 2021, our Extended Range 5G covered 94% of Americans, including 310M people across 1.8 million square miles—delivering nearly five times more geographic coverage than Verizon and nearly two times more than AT&T.
America's largest 5G network.
Nearly 2x the geographic coverage of AT&T’s & nearly 5x Verizon’s.
Extended Range 5G covers 310M people or 94% of U.S. population.
First to launch mid-band 5G; already covers 210M people nationwide.
Network and coverage data current as of December 31, 2021.
America's fastest 5G network.*
Delivering speeds faster than Wi‑Fi to more people than any other wireless provider.**
More than 20 third-party network reports last year: TMUS is #1 in 5G speed and availability.
*Fastest based on median, overall combined 5G speeds according to analysis by Ookla® of Speedtest Intelligence® data 5G download speeds for Q4 2021. Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission.
**Based on analysis by T‑Mobile of Speedtest Intelligence® data from Ookla® U.S. median 5G T‑Mobile speed tests from cities with 2.5GHz deployed compared to mobile Wi‑Fi results for Q4 2021. Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission.
Further Extending Our 5G Leadership
Neville Ray
The Un‑carrier is continuing to set the pace for the 5G era thanks to our superior spectrum portfolio, unprecedented deployment rate, and synergy-backed model.
As the only telecom with deployed, dedicated mid-band spectrum nationwide, T‑Mobile continues to expand the breadth and depth of our 5G footprint, including in smaller markets and rural areas, and with new product experiences like High Speed Internet, which has helped provide more choices for customers.
We’re also planning to bring Ultra Capacity 5G to 260M people in 2022 and 300M in 2023—which will expand our geographic coverage by five times what it is today. We’re not slowing down!
Added to industry-best mid-band portfolio with purchase of 3.45Hz spectrum.
Tripled our Ultra Capacity 5G square mileage in 2021 and plan for 3x again in 2022.
Fueling 5G innovation with T‑Mobile Accelerator, Tech Experience 5G Hub, and 5G Open Innovation Lab.
Our business is firing on all cylinders as we continue our integration of the largest merger in telecom history. We realized $3.8B in merger synergies, nearly tripling year over year. And our merger synergies are expected to further ramp up to between $5.0B and $5.3B in 2022. True to form, we’re doing better than planned. Network migration is the most challenging aspect of integration, and even there we’re ahead of schedule.
By the end of 2021, 64% of Sprint customers had been migrated to the T‑Mobile network. This is even more impressive when you consider that fewer than 10% were migrated at the end of 2020! At that accelerated pace, we expect to wrap up network migration by mid-2022, putting us on track to complete integration in three years rather than four and to deliver approximately $7.5B in synergies per year by 2024.
Network Migration
By the end of 2021, 64% of Sprint customers migrated to the T‑Mobile network.
Synergies
We delivered $3.8B in merger synergies in 2021, up 3x year over year, and expect to deliver $5.0-$5.3B in merger synergies in 2022.
T‑Mobile is striving to build a more equitable and sustainable future for our communities, our customers, and the world.
Edwige Robinson
Janice Kapner
Deeanne King
Bavan Holloway
Bridging the Digital Divide
In 2021, we also further extended our efforts to help bridge the digital divide by removing economic and geographic barriers to connectivity. By the end of 2021, Project 10Million—our $10.7B initiative that officially launched in 2020—had brought free or subsidized connectivity to nearly 1,500 school districts, and all in all we’ve connected ~3.2M students nationwide.
Our 5G High Speed Internet is giving families a new option for affordable, reliable home broadband that’s available to 30M homes nationwide, with millions of those in rural areas. In light of pandemic hardships, the Un‑carrier launched T‑Mobile Connect, its lowest-priced plan ever, and recently expanded our participation in the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) to Metro by T‑Mobile in addition to ongoing support from Assurance Wireless.
Fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
In early 2021, T‑Mobile continued to evolve and expand our longstanding commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) with the launch of our new Equity In Action plan. The plan is based on feedback from our employees, key external stakeholders and customers, and gives us a five-year DE&I plan and road map to lead by example, put people first, and ensure that DE&I remains at the core of everything we do.
As part of our Equity In Action plan, we invested millions in new programs for students entering Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), the NextTech Diversity Program for career training and placement for thousands of underrepresented candidates, and Magenta Edge, a professional development resource for Black entrepreneurs and other people of color.
T‑Mobile also expanded its longstanding support of organizations that serve LGBTQ+ youth with a $1M donation to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s new financial and digital literacy initiatives. And for the ninth year in a row, T‑Mobile was awarded a 100% score on the 2021 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, recognizing that we’ve created one of the best places to work for LGBTQ+ employees.
Mobilizing for a Thriving Planet
2021 was a milestone year for the Un‑carrier’s environmental efforts. Back in 2018, T‑Mobile was the first and only U.S. provider to create a plan to source 100% of our total electricity usage with renewable energy by the end of 2021. It was an ambitious goal we deeply believed in, and in one of our proudest moments, last year we achieved it—far ahead of our competitors, even as a historic merger expanded our electricity needs. In addition, T‑Mobile has also led Green America’s Wireless Scorecard three years in a row, and we received a top grade in the 2021 CDP Climate Change questionnaire.
In 2021, T‑Mobile has experienced our greatest momentum in company history. The investments we made and will make in the coming year will enable us to grow customer and service revenues while further expanding in underpenetrated markets—all with a focus on solving customer pain points and further connecting customers to their world. And as we take our network build to yet another level in 2022 and beyond, we’ll keep using our scale and resources to change the rules of wireless for the benefit of customers and force the industry to follow. We’re already setting a new standard for wireless, but this journey is just getting started. We are entering a new era of Un‑carrier and no goal is too ambitious or transformative when you’re focused on doing what’s right for customers.
