T-Mobile targets first US 6G launch, rules out SpaceX MVNO

By Elena Vasquez

T-Mobile reported $19.4 billion in third-quarter service revenue, up 6% year over year, and used its earnings call to claim it will be the first US carrier to launch 6G. The operator offered no service date, pointing instead to an industry expectation that 6G networks will be built in 2030.

What is T-Mobile promising with 6G?

Chief technology officer John Saw said: “2030 will see 6G networks being built and T-Mobile will be the first with 6G in this country with new applications like integrated sensing and communications [ISAC].”

In Saw's account, ISAC would make base stations and radios behave like radars, adding remote-sensing uses to the network. He presented this as the defining feature of the first G, while the launch timetable remains an ambition rather than a commercial deployment schedule.

Saw expects cellular traffic in 2030 to remain downlink-heavy but become increasingly uplink-rich. He attributes that mix to AI wearables, AI agents and rapid projected growth in physical-AI devices, including:

• Humanoid robots and other robots
• Delivery drones
• Connected vehicles
• Factory machines

Upcoming auctions of upper C-band and 2.7GHz spectrum offer T-Mobile a route to more capacity for 6G and additional uplink bandwidth. The carrier did not attach auction dates or purchase prices to that plan.

How is physical AI reaching T-Mobile's network?

Before the results, Saw described partner work with Figure AI on humanoid robots, Serve Robotics on delivery robots and 5G-connected cameras in San Jose. The examples move T-Mobile's physical-AI proposition from connectivity alone toward computing and intelligence at the network edge.

T-Mobile has also teamed with Amazon Web Services to build initial instances of what it calls “kinetic edge.” The architecture combines its 5G-Advanced network and distributed edge with AWS cloud orchestration and AI services.

T-Mobile says this can bring deterministic connectivity, compute and intelligence closer to where machines operate. That is the operator's technical proposition; management's own assessment places the commercial case at an early stage.

CEO Srini Gopalan said the projects move beyond eSIM connectivity for humanoid robots to testing how the network helps deliver intelligence itself. He also said the revenue opportunities and associated costs for carriers remain at a very early stage.

Looking further ahead, Gopalan said it is reasonable to expect millions of robots, drones and other connected moving objects by 2035. His focus then shifted to the infrastructure those objects will require.

Why will T-Mobile not add a SpaceX MVNO?

T-Mobile already has a relationship with SpaceX, but CEO Srini Gopalan said: “The answer to the MVNO [question] is I see no room for an MVNO with SpaceX either on the consumer side or on the physical and edge AI side.”

He treats satellite service as complementary and limits any arrangement to direct commercial dealings, with either SpaceX or T-Mobile able to be the other's customer. The restriction therefore applies to consumer services as well as physical and edge-AI offerings.

SpaceX's Starlink business is developing around expected demand from robots, cars and AI agents, creating a partner and rival for T-Mobile. T-Mobile places 5G-Advanced and future 6G at the center of its terrestrial physical-AI strategy.

What did T-Mobile's third quarter show?\n

• Service revenue rose 6% year over year to $19.4 billion. Growth came from higher postpaid revenue after the UScellular and Metronet acquisitions in the prior year's third quarter, partly offset by lower prepaid revenue.
• Postpaid service revenue increased 9% to $16.3 billion.
• Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, increased 11% to $9.6 billion.
• T-Mobile added 274,000 net postpaid accounts, 3% more than a year earlier, bringing the total to 35 million. Q2 net additions were 277,000.
• Average revenue per account reached $155.73, up 4%.
• Postpaid account churn rose 12 basis points to 1.09%.

T-Mobile no longer breaks out net additions separately for mobile, fixed wireless access and fiber, and now reports accounts. It attributed the slight decline from Q2 to higher churn among broadband-only customers and changes to rate plans.

What changed at the top of T-Mobile?

Former CEO Mike Sievert will step down as vice chairman of the board on November 1, one year after handing the reins to Gopalan. His departure comes amid a reported reprieve for T-Mobile's corporate ownership.

Bloomberg reported that parent Deutsche Telekom has put on hold plans to bid for a full takeover of its US operation. The report partly attributed the pause to opposition from T-Mobile's works council and some company executives.

What is Virgin Media O2 testing?

Separately, Virgin Media O2 is evaluating AI-RAN offerings from Ericsson and Nokia through a trial at a busy Nokia site in central London. The operator has installed an Nvidia processor there to assess whether it delivers genuine AI benefits.

The coming upper C-band and 2.7GHz auctions and early physical-AI project results will test whether T-Mobile can turn its 2030 6G positioning into a funded rollout. The carrier still has no 6G launch date, and management says physical-AI revenue and costs remain at an early stage.