<P> T - Mobile US, Inc., commonly shortened to T - Mobile, is a United States - based wireless network operator whose majority shareholder is the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom (DT). Its headquarters are located in Bellevue, Washington, in the Seattle metropolitan area . T - Mobile is the third largest wireless carrier in the United States with 75.6 million customers as of Q2 2018 . </P> <P> T - Mobile US provides wireless voice and data services in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands under the T - Mobile and MetroPCS brands (which it acquired in a reverse takeover in 2013, resulting in the company going public on the NASDAQ stock exchange), and also serves as the host network for many mobile virtual network operators . The company has annual revenues of over $40 billion . In 2015, Consumer Reports named T - Mobile the number one American wireless carrier . In 2017, T - Mobile was ranked #1 in Customer Service Satisfaction by Nielsen . </P> <P> T - Mobile US traces its roots to the 1994 establishment of VoiceStream Wireless PCS as a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation . Spun off from parent Western Wireless on May 3, 1999, VoiceStream Wireless was purchased by Deutsche Telekom AG in 2001 for $35 billion and renamed T - Mobile USA, Inc. in July, 2002 . In 2013, T - Mobile and MetroPCS finalized a merger of the two companies . The two companies began trading as T - Mobile US . </P> <P> VoiceStream Wireless PCS was established in 1994 as a subsidiary of Western Wireless Corporation to provide digital wireless personal communications services (PCS) in 19 FCC - defined metropolitan service areas in several western and southwestern states . VoiceStream Wireless' digital, urban service areas complemented the analog, rural service areas marketed by Western Wireless under the Cellular One brand . </P>

What was t-mobile called before it was t-mobile