Well, one thing is being profitable, and the other is how much money you can spend "right now". AT&T is posted Q3 revenues of 44.6 billion [1], and T-Mobile of

Well, one thing is being profitable, and the other is how much money you can spend "right now". AT&T is posted Q3 revenues of 44.6 billion [1], and T-Mobile of 11.1 billion [2]; that's a significant margin. Building network infrastructure is not cheap and the move to 5G will be even more expensive, but users move to the network that is better for them _right now_. [1]: https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR/financial-reports/quarterly-earnings/2019/3q-2019/3Q19%20Highlights.pdf https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR/financial-r... [2]: https://s22.q4cdn.com/194431217/files/doc_financials/2019/q3/TMUS-09_30_2019-Investor-Factbook.pdf https://s22.q4cdn.com/194431217/files/doc_financials/2019/q3...