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# Optimum Hoping to Improve Mobile Service With Expanded T-Mobile Deal
- URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/optimum-hoping-to-improve-mobile-service-with-expanded-t-mobile-deal/
- Published: 2026-08-31T15:43:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-18T21:47:41.000Z
- Description: The deal will allow Optimum to offer connectivity for wearables, better roaming, and business plans
- Author: Jake Neenan
- Tags: Wireless, Dennis Mathew, luciano ramos, Optimum, T-Mobile, #with-siderail

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2026 – Optimum is hoping to boost its mobile service through a newly expanded deal with T-Mobile, the cable operator said Monday.

Optimum CEO **Dennis Mathew** first disclosed the deal earlier this month on the company’s [earnings call](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/optimum-beats-on-broadband-losses-but-debt-looms/). He said it would allow the company to offer connectivity on more kinds of devices, like tablets and wearables.

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In [a Monday release](https://investors.optimum.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/241/optimum-expands-t-mobile-relationship-to-bring-customers?ref=broadbandbreakfast.com), Optimum said the expanded mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) contract would let Optimum offer service on T-Mobile’s 5G Standalone network core. That would allow the company to offer better roaming services and new dedicated business plans, plus better speeds in rural areas, the company said.

An Optimum spokesperson said in an email that currently the company operates its own core via four U.S. locations. Under the new deal, Optimum would integrate that with T-Mobile’s 5G SA platform.

The company is hoping to roll out the new features next year, the spokesperson said.

“By deepening our relationship with T-Mobile and gaining access to its advanced 5G Standalone platform and broader device portfolio, we will be able to accelerate innovation, enhance everyday customer experiences, and deliver even greater value as we drive our broadband-mobile convergence strategy,” **Luciano Ramos**, Optimum’s chief technology officer, said in a statement.

That convergence strategy, bundling fixed and mobile broadband to reduce churn, is a big part of Optimum’s plan to mitigate broadband subscriber losses that have plagued cable ISPs in recent years. Many of those losses have come at the hands of the carriers’ fixed wireless service, on which T-Mobile counts millions of subscribers.

Optimum surpassed 724,000 [mobile lines](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/chart-of-mobile-subscribers/) in the second quarter, and has lower converged prices than competitors in its footprint according to research firm MoffettNathanson. Mathew said 9 percent of its more than 4 million broadband subscribers took at least one line.

The company has more than $6 billion in debt coming due next year, and billions more in subsequent years. With no way to pay it off, Optimum is currently trying to negotiate a deal with its lenders to restructure the deal.

As of the second quarter call, that work was ongoing. The company recently moved some assets to a subsidiary that would be out of reach of its creditors in the event of a bankruptcy, an effort to force them to come to the table.

Optimum is also embroiled in a lawsuit with the lenders, accusing them of colluding to keep the price of its debt high. 

Cable giants Charter and Comcast offer mobile service through a deal with Verizon. They count more than 20 million wireless lines between them.