Metro PCS 2011 Annual Report Download - page 19

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Products and Services
We provide wireless broadband mobile services under the MetroPCS® brand. In January 2010, we introduced a new
family of service plans, which include all applicable taxes and regulatory fees and offer nationwide voice, text and web access
services on a predominately unlimited, no long-term contract, paid-in-advance, flat-rate basis beginning at $40 per month. For
an additional $5 to $20 per month, our customers may select alternative service plans that offer additional features on an
unlimited basis. We also offer discounts to customers who purchase services for additional handsets on the same account. In
January 2011, we introduced new 4G LTE service plans that allow customers to enjoy voice, text and web access services at
fixed monthly rates starting as low as $40 per month. For additional usage fees, we also provide certain other value-added
services.
We provide the following products and services:
• Voice Services. Our voice services allow customers to place voice calls to, and receive calls from, any telephone in
the world, including local, domestic long distance, and international calls. Our voice services also allow customers
to receive and make calls while they are located in areas served by our networks and in those geographic areas
served by certain other wireless broadband mobile carriers with whom we have roaming arrangements.
• Data Services. Our data services include text messaging services (domestic and international); multimedia
messaging services; mobile Internet access; mobile instant messaging; location based services; social networking
services; push e-mail; multimedia streaming and downloads; and services provided, depending on the network and
locale, through the Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, or BREW, Blackberry, Windows, and the Android
platforms, such as ringtones, ring back tones, games, content, and applications.
• Custom Calling Features. We offer custom calling features, including caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling and
voicemail.
• Advanced Handsets. We sell a variety of feature phones, and increasingly, smartphones, manufactured by
nationally recognized manufacturers for use on our network, including models that have cameras, can browse the
Internet, play music, play streaming audio, display streaming video and downloaded video, and have other features
facilitating digital data. We sell a variety of handsets using vendor or handset specific operating systems, such as
BREW, Blackberry, Windows, and the Android operating system.
Service Areas
Our strategy has been to offer our wireless broadband mobile services in major metropolitan markets and surrounding
areas. We commenced providing commercial wireless broadband mobile service in the first quarter of 2002. We launched
service in our current major metropolitan areas as follows:
• Miami, Atlanta and Sacramento in the first quarter of 2002
• San Francisco in September 2002
• Tampa/Sarasota in October 2005
• Dallas/Fort Worth in March 2006
• Detroit in April 2006
• Orlando and portions of northern Florida in November 2006
• Los Angeles in September 2007
• Las Vegas in March 2008
• Philadelphia in July 2008
• New York and Boston in February 2009
We provide our services using paired personal communications services, or PCS, spectrum and advanced wireless
services, or AWS, spectrum. In addition, we hold a license for 12 MHz of paired 700 MHz Lower Band A spectrum in the
Boston-Worchester, MA/NH/RI/VT basic economic area, or BEA. In each of our major metropolitan areas where we provide
service, as of December 31, 2011, we hold between 10 MHz and 60 MHz of paired spectrum and on average we have
approximately 22 MHz of paired spectrum in our major metropolitan areas. In aggregate, as of December 31, 2011, we offer
services using our own network covering a population of 100 million in the continental United States.
The map below illustrates the geographic coverage of our licensed spectrum as of December 31, 2011: