T-Mobile US once again shrugged off macroeconomic concerns, touting a strong 5G-fueled third-fiscal quarter and expectations of that momentum continuing into the new year. It also marked strong progress for what had been an event-filled quarter for the carrier.

The carrier posted robust Q3 results that again took advantage of its expansive 5G footprint compared to rivals AT&T and Verizon. This included posting customer growth ahead of expectations, boosted by ongoing strength in its 5G-based fixed-wireless access (FWA) service.

T-Mobile US executives said the carrier continues to unleash its spectrum resources to feed the 5G capacity and coverage needs of its growing customer base.

CEO Mike Sievert told investors on the earnings call that the carrier ended the quarter covering 250 million potential customers with its “Ultra Capacity: 5G network, compared to 235 million people covered at mid-year. The carrier’s Ultra Capacity network uses its substantial 2.5 GHz spectrum resources to provide increased network speeds.

That coverage mark kept T-Mobile US substantially ahead of its rivals’ use of their C-Band spectrum resources. T-Mobile US during the quarter boosted those efforts through a government auction and a deal to acquire spectrum licenses from Columbia Capital for $3.5 billion.

Neville Ray, president of technology for T-Mobile US, explained the carrier was also starting to layer in its 1.9 GHz spectrum resources that had been powering its 4G LTE network and Sprint’s CDMA and LTE network.

“So we have more sites and more spectrum coming online as we move through the future months and years for the company,” Ray said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of the call.

Ray also touted the carrier’s ongoing 5G standalone (SA) expansion that is allowing the carrier to more efficiently carry network traffic. The biggest push was its recent move to start carrying voice traffic over its 5G SA core using voice over new radio (VoNR) technology.

“We continue to test, we continue to optimize,” Ray said. “Why is that important? It’s important because we want to have all of our traffic, all of that customer experience on a 5G lane. Today, we have to drop our customers down off of that 5G lane onto LTE. And we’ve talked before about how we see our business as an all 5G network and having VoNR and that voice service is critical to executing on that strategy and making sure we have a full 5G network with full standalone capability. So we’re making progress, still got work to do. I’m not going to say it’s where we want it to be yet. But I’m confident over the next couple of quarters we will materially expand that footprint.”

Analysts noted that T-Mobile US’ 5G position will allow it to target new market segments.

“With this network leadership it now can attack some areas it has been under indexed such as the business space and rural/small town America,” Counterpoint Research Director Jeff Fieldhack wrote in a report.

Looking ahead, CFO Peter Osvaldik said the carrier now expects to spend up to $13.9 billion for the year on capex. That is up approximately $200 million from what it had forecast at the end of the second quarter.

Osvaldik said the adjustment reflected “the ongoing robust pace of our 5G deployment and success in high-speed internet where we capitalize the routers.”

Analysts were mostly positive on the news.

"It is clear that [T-Mobile US'] leadership in 5G network quality and lowest prices continue to drive market share gains," Oppenheimer analyst Tim Horan said in a report, according to an Investor’s Business Daily story. "Positively, it has just shut down the Sprint network and will be complete with the merger next year when the full synergies should hit."