This is a list of United States wireless communications service providers. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), lists approximately 30 facilities-based wireless service providers in the United States as members. Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) has over 100 members. Besides the facilities-based providers there are 50+ virtual operators that use the top four networks to provide the service.
Largest U.S. wireless providers
Canadian Wireless Services Provider Doesn't Operate in Canada - It's popular in the United States. But cell phone provider Ting says it can't operate in Canada because it's restricted by the country's "Big Three" providers.
The top 4 wireless telecommunications facilities-based service providers by subscriber count in the United States are:
- Verizon Wireless: 150.5 million (Q4 2017)
- AT&T Mobility: 141.6 million (Q4 2017)
- T-Mobile US: 72.6 million (Q4 2017)
- Sprint Corporation: 53.6 million (Q4 2017)
Each active SIM card is considered a subscriber. Wholesale customers include Machine to machine and Mobile Virtual Network Operator customers that operate on the host network, but are managed by wholesale partners. Verizon Wireless does not report wholesale subscriber count. For comparison purpose, the total subscriber count for Verizon Wireless includes an estimated number of wholesale customers.
Technologies used
The top 5 wireless providers have all standardized on 4G LTE as their wireless communication standard, which has been deployed across the entire coverage; however, the LTE bands used by each provider remain largely incompatible. All 5 wireless providers also maintain legacy networks; of these, AT&T and T-Mobile use 2G GSM/EDGE and 3G UMTS (mostly converted to 4G HSPA+), while Verizon, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular use cdmaOne/EV-DO/1xRTT. While the top 4 wireless providers operate nationwide wireless networks which cover most of the population in the United States, U.S. Cellular and other smaller carriers provide native network coverage across selected regions of the United States while supplementing nationwide coverage through roaming agreements with other carriers.
As of 2016 all operators have adopted LTE, which includes provisioning of service through SIM cards. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint sell SIM cards through their retail channels in-store and online however the selection of devices compatible with Verizon and Sprint networks is limited. All carriers except Sprint have enabled VoLTE on their networks.
AT&T shut its GSM network down on December 31, 2016.
T-Mobile plans to reduce spectrum allocated for GSM and use the network mostly for nomadic and non-mobile GSM services through 2020. T-Mobile hopes to shut down 3G network "long before 2020." As of September 2016, 60% of calls were on VoLTE.
Verizon introduced first LTE-only phone, LG Exalt LTE, in June 2017. Verizon plans to shut down CDMA 1xRTT network by the end of 2019. CDMA EV-DO was scheduled to operate until 2021 according to the plan announced in 2012. As of May 2017 half of voice traffic is on VoLTE.
Facilities-based service providers
The following tables lists service providers that own and manage their network equipment and facilities. Unless specified otherwise the subscriber count includes subscribers on the virtual networks hosted.
Contiguous US and Hawaii
Alaska
Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands
Guam and Northern Mariana Islands
American Samoa
Defunct, merged and acquired operators
Some operators listed below may still function as a separate brand but they no longer own any infrastructure (towers, network, etc.).
See also
- List of United States mobile virtual network operators
- List of CDMA2000 networks
- List of UMTS networks
- List of LTE networks
- List of mobile network operators
- List of mobile network operators of the Americas
- List of mobile network operators of the Asia Pacific region
References
