Phase 2 of T-Mobile’s ‘uncarrier’ coup begins

T-Mobile’s plan to shake up the wireless industry has always had one fatal flaw: The poor reputation of its wireless network. The carrier is taking steps to get its network up to speed, however, and has gotten a big boost on the spectrum front from its acquisition of prepaid wireless carrier MetroPCS. An unnamed source tells Reuters that T-Mobile has set aside $3 billion that it wants to use to buy up unused spectrum from Verizon, a move that “would give T-Mobile additional network capacity to help it catch up with its bigger rivals in delivering high-speed wireless services.” Verizon has said that it’s interested in selling off some chunks of spectrum it owns on the coveted 700MHz band so it looks like this would be a natural place for T-Mobile to invest to improve the reach and power of its LTE network.