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6
PART I
Item 1. Business
General
We are the fifth largest facilities-based wireless broadband mobile communications provider in the United States based on
the number of customers served. We offer wireless broadband mobile services under the MetroPCS® brand in selected major
metropolitan areas in the United States. We provide a variety of wireless broadband mobile communications services to our
customers on a no long-term contract, paid-in-advance basis. As of December 31, 2011, we had over 9.3 million customers.
MetroPCS Communications, Inc., or MetroPCS Communications, was incorporated in 2004 in the state of Delaware and
maintains its corporate headquarters in Richardson, Texas. All of our services are provided through wholly-owned subsidiaries
of MetroPCS Wireless, Inc., an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of MetroPCS Communications. In April 2007, MetroPCS
Communications consummated an initial public offering of its common stock and became listed for trading on The New York
Stock Exchange under the symbol “PCS.”
Our web site address is www.metropcs.com. Information contained on, or accessible from, our web site is not
incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K and should not be considered part of this report or any other
filing we make with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. We file with, or furnish to, the SEC
all our periodic filings and reports, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on
Form 8-K, and any amendments thereto, as well as other information. All of our filings with the SEC are available free of
charge through the Investor Relations page of our web site as soon as practicable after filing or providing such information to
the SEC. Copies of any of our filings with the SEC also may be obtained, without charge, by sending a written request to
Investor Relations, MetroPCS Communications, Inc., 2250 Lakeside Blvd., Richardson, Texas 75082. Copies of any of our
filings also can be obtained without charge from the SEC at www.sec.gov.
Business Overview
We currently provide our wireless broadband mobile services primarily in selected major metropolitan areas in the United
States, including the Atlanta, Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando/
Jacksonville, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Tampa/Sarasota metropolitan areas. As of December 31, 2011, we
hold licenses for wireless spectrum suitable for wireless broadband mobile services covering a total population of 142 million
people in and around many of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. In addition, we have roaming agreements
with other wireless broadband mobile carriers that allow us to offer our customers service when they are outside our service
area. These roaming agreements, together with the area we serve with our own networks, allow our customers to receive
service in an area covering over 280 million in total population under the Metro USA® brand. We provide our services using
code division multiple access, or CDMA, networks using 1xRTT technology and evolved data only, or EVDO, and, long term
evolution, or 4G LTE, technology. We introduced the first commercial 4G LTE service in the United States in our Las Vegas
and Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan areas in September 2010 and at that time launched the world's first dual mode 4G LTE/
CDMA handset. Subsequently through the remainder of 2010 and early 2011, we launched our 4G LTE service in the
remainder of our major metropolitan areas.
Competitive Strengths
We believe our business model has the following competitive strengths that distinguish us from our principal wireless
competitors:
• Our Service Plans. We currently offer our wireless broadband mobile services on a no long-term contract, paid-in-
advance, flat-rate, and predominately unlimited usage basis. Starting in January 2010, we began offering our
wireless broadband mobile services using rate plans that include all applicable taxes and regulatory fees. We believe
we offer a compelling value proposition to our customers. Our average per minute cost to our customers for our
wireless broadband mobile service plans is significantly lower than the average per minute cost of other traditional
wireless broadband mobile carriers based on the average use of such carriers' customers based on publicly available
information. We believe our low average cost per minute has positioned, and will continue to position, us well for
the growing trend of wireline displacement.