T-Mobile has built a dominant position in the U.S. prepaid wireless market by strategically targeting immigrant communities, especially Hispanic consumers, through its Metro by T-Mobile brand, Spanish-language marketing, immigrant-focused initiatives, and strategic placement of retail locations at major border crossings.
During the Biden administration, U.S. wireless prepaid industry growth was significantly influenced by net immigration, with analysts attributing a significant percentage of new subscriber additions to this demographic. Prepaid wireless service involves paying up front for a certain amount of data and phone usage, while postpaid wireless service are traditional contracts with providers like AT&T or Verizon where consumers receive a bill at the end of the month.
While hard data on mobile service usage among immigrants is limited, several structural indicators point to prepaid plans as the overwhelmingly preferred option within this population. Immigrants, and particularly illegal immigrants, typically face significant barriers to postpaid mobile service — including requirements for Social Security numbers or other forms of identification, credit checks, and long-term contracts — making prepaid plans the most accessible and practical alternative.
T-Mobile, in particular, appears to have most capitalized on the immigrant market, especially within the low-income Hispanic/Latino segment, primarily through its Metro by T-Mobile prepaid brand. This strategic focus has positioned T-Mobile as a leader in the prepaid market, capturing a substantial share of this growing customer base.
Industry data indicate that by the end of 2024, T-Mobile led the prepaid market with over 25.4 million customers — most of whom subscribed through its Metro by T-Mobile brand. AT&T ranked second, serving approximately 19 million prepaid customers primarily through its Cricket Wireless subsidiary. Boost Mobile, now owned by DISH Network, held the third spot with around 7.4 million subscribers.
While all three brands target the immigrant demographic to one degree or another, T-Mobile moved early to strengthen its positioning with the immigrant, and particularly the Hispanic immigrant market. In 2013, it acquired MetroPCS (now Metro by T-Mobile) and rapidly expanded the brand into Hispanic-heavy markets in California and Texas. More than a decade later in 2024, T-Mobile acquired Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile, both of which had strong appeal among Hispanic consumers. Ultra Mobile, for instance, is known for its international calling plans to Latin America.
T-Mobile also partnered with TelevisaUnivision to offer ViX+, a Spanish-language streaming service, free to its customers. Additionally, it sponsors Liga MX in the U.S., leveraging the popularity of soccer within the Hispanic community. Other initiatives include the $15 Stateside International Talk program, which allows unlimited calling to 36+ countries, including many in Latin America.
T-Mobile’s DEI Initiatives Focus on Immigrants
T-Mobile’s corporate responsibility reports show the company has also actively aligned part of its corporate responsibility strategy with aiding immigrants in the US. Through its partnership with Welcome.US for instance, the company pledged up to 200,000 free Metro by T-Mobile lines for one year, including talk, text, and data, to help immigrants stay connected during their “resettlement.” In 2023, this program also distributed 24,000 free Google smartphones via resettlement agencies and community groups.
T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert, who serves on the Welcome.US CEO Council, worked closely with the Biden Administration on immigration programs. In September 2023, he and several CEOs met with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients to support expanded resettlement and sponsorship programs for immigrants. According to a spokesperson for Welcome.US, Sievert and the CEO Council worked with the Biden Administration to “implement the largest expansion of humanitarian sponsorship pathways to safety in the United States in recent history.”
Beyond connectivity, T-Mobile also launched a Newcomer Hiring Program, collaborating with more than a dozen organizations to help “newcomers recently settled in the U.S. and looking for work” with job opportunities in the retail and tech sectors. In Des Moines, Iowa, the company teamed up with Catholic Charities’ Refugee Services to provide immigrants with 200 home internet gateways and 24 months of WiFi services from T-Mobile.
T-Mobile Reliance on Immigration-driven Growth
This reliance on immigration-driven growth presents potential vulnerabilities. T-Mobile’s 2024 Annual Report acknowledged that “changes in U.S. immigration policies” was a risk factor that could adversely affect its business operations. Analysts have suggested that stricter immigration measures could disproportionately impact T-Mobile compared to its competitors, given its significant exposure to immigrant populations in the prepaid segment.
Sievert has discounted the impact of immigration on T-Mobile’s business in recent months. In the company’s fourth quarter 2024 earnings call, he told investors that T-Mobile was “very insulated” from the impact of tighter immigration restrictions on its prepaid business because the company was “primarily revolving around the very highest premium monthly prepaid subscriptions and not necessarily the transactional prepaid business.”
However, Metro by T-Mobile’s prepaid marketing strategy since at least 2021 tells a different story. The brand has carved out a unique niche by targeting Hispanic immigrants through a highly accessible, low-barrier enrollment model.
The brand’s marketing is overwhelmingly in Spanish — visible across digital campaigns, storefront signage, and retail promotions — and clearly aimed at customers who may lack formal identification or credit history. In fact, many of Metro’s advertised deals reinforce this intent: offers such as “Buy one month, get two months free,” with no government-issued ID required and zero activation fees, are tailored to serve customers who need immediate connectivity and prefer to pay in cash.
T-Mobile Retail Presence at Key Border Crossings
Moreover, although prepaid carriers like Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless also maintain a strong presence in U.S.-Mexico border towns such as San Ysidro, Calexico, El Paso, and Nogales, it is Metro by T-Mobile that appears to have secured the most strategic real estate.
In many of these high-traffic crossings, Metro storefronts are positioned just steps from key Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ports of entry — sometimes within a few hundred feet — making them some of the very first commercial establishments visible to newly arrived immigrants and potential customers. For T-Mobile, these border towns appear to be gold mines, hot spots where foot and vehicle traffic converts directly into prepaid revenue.
Here are several examples:
At the San Ysidro border crossing — widely recognized as the busiest land border crossing in the world, new immigrants are greeted by a Metro by T-Mobile kiosk just 200 feet from the CBP Customs facility. In 2023, Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported more than 15.8 million vehicle crossings and 6.8 million pedestrian crossings from Mexico through the San Ysidro border facility.
At the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego, CA, the Metro by T-Mobile store is just steps from the new Otay Mesa Pedestrian Crossing. In 2023, BTS logged more than 5.7 million personal vehicle crossings from Mexico. A March 2025 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform found that the San Diego border sector in which the Otay Mesa crossing is located encountered more than 324,000 illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2024.
At the Calexico West Port of Entry in California, the first landmarks greeting newly arrived immigrants are a Greyhound bus station and, just beyond, a Metro by T-Mobile store, situated a mere 550 steps from the Mexico border. This prime location puts Metro within immediate reach of immigrants as they enter the United States. In 2023, BTS logged more than 5 million vehicle crossings and pedestrian crossings from Mexico.
The Metro by T-Mobile store in San Luis, Arizona is just over 1,000 feet from the CBP border crossing connecting the Mexican town of San Luis Rió Colorado to the American side. The Greater Yuma Port Authority reports that in 2023, the San Luis Port of Entry processed almost 2.9 million pedestrians and 3.2 million personal vehicles carrying 5.4 million passengers through the port.
In El Paso, Texas, the Metro by T-Mobile storefront is just 350 feet from the Paso del Norte Port of Entry. According to BTS statistics, the crossing is one of the busiest in the country with more than 4.2 million pedestrians and 8.3 million vehicles passing through the port in 2023.
In Eagle Pass, Texas, the Metro by T-Mobile store is located just three blocks from the Paso del Norte border crossing and Shelby Park, which became a focal point of migrant crossings during the winter of 2023 and early 2024. Large groups of illegal immigrants, often numbering in the hundreds and sometimes even thousands, regularly crossed into the United States at this location. News reports and on-the-ground footage during the height of the crisis showed crowds of asylum seekers gathering in and around Shelby Park, waiting to be processed by Border Patrol agents. In early 2024, the Texas National Guard, under Governor Greg Abbott’s orders, seized control of the park, blocking federal Border Patrol agents from the area. The confrontation quickly became a national flashpoint, symbolizing the escalating conflict between the Abbott administration and the Biden White House over control of border security and immigration enforcement in Texas.
In Laredo, Texas, the Metro by T-Mobile store is just four blocks from the Laredo border crossing, which received more than 4.9 million incoming personal vehicles from Mexico in 2023 according to BTS. The Texas border city has also experienced huge numbers of illegal immigrant crossings in recent years. In December 2022, Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz reported that more than 1.600 migrants were crossing the border per day in Laredo. They were immediately processed and released into the community by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
While T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert publicly downplays immigration’s impact on T-Mobile’s business model, the company’s actions tell a different story: Metro by T-Mobile’s retail network strategically positioned at major ports of entry, marketing explicitly targeting customers without formal identification, and corporate partnerships focused on immigrant integration all reveal the true importance of this demographic to T-Mobile’s prepaid business segment.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
