T-Mobile US formally closed its seventh quarter of business since it announced plans to acquire Sprint for $26.5 billion, and the result still lingers. Irrespective of the merger’s outcome, which awaits a federal judge’s decision and approval by the California Public Utilities Commission, the final quarter of 2019 was arguably its most consequential yet.

It’s been a little more than two months since T-Mobile activated what it describes as America’s first “nationwide” 5G network covering more than 200 million potential people and a geographic range of more than 1 million square miles. The carrier was the last of the big four nationwide operators to deploy 5G, but it is now well in the lead in terms of 5G coverage and availability.

T-Mobile also during the quarter announced that Mike Sievert, who currently serves as president and COO, will assume the position of CEO on May 1, marking the end of CEO John Legere’s eight-year run at the company.

T-Mobile now claims its network’s coverage is at parity with AT&T and Verizon with 327 million people covered by its 4G LTE network. At the end of 2019, that included 248 million people covered by low-band spectrum in the 600 MHz band, spanning a geographic reach of 1.5 million square miles in almost 8,900 cities and towns, according to the operator.

“We’re spreading the 5G goodness all over the U.S,” said Neville Ray, T-Mobile’s president of technology. “We’re just getting started. We have a long, long way to go. Obviously with the hopeful closing with Sprint you’re going to see an incredible layer of additional spectrum.”

Company executives were reticent to get into specifics about the merger on today’s earnings call, but it remains the most important issue impacting industry- and market-wide dynamics, including spending on network equipment and services as highlighted by vendors Ericsson and Nokia of late. The topic was unavoidable and explains why Sprint hasn’t held an earnings call in more than six months.

“The facts are on our side,” Legere said, later adding that “we know who’s going to win, we just don’t know when.”

He also clarified that the agreement with Sprint is still in force, with some caveats, despite missing a deadline three months ago. In the intervening months, some analysts and observers have questioned if T-Mobile might push for better terms.

“We have a fully in effect [agreement] but at [Nov. 1, 2019] without an amendment either party has a walkaway right, so in effect the partnership is still strong, we just have not updated it to remove the walkaway ability,” Legere explained. “If there is a need for amendment to the [agreement], including possibly price, we would handle that very swiftly after the deal was approved.”

He also added that “if the deal is not approved there are certainly a myriad of things that Sprint and we could consider doing to harbor some of what would’ve taken place if the companies come together.” That could include spectrum sharing or other arrangements that would otherwise give T-Mobile access to Sprint’s vast 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings.

“We remain confident in our standalone outcome, but of course it would be that much more exciting to successfully close this merger and begin rapidly delivering those vast benefits of the merger to America’s consumers,” Sievert said.

T-Mobile provided capex guidance in the range of $5.9 billion to $6.2 billion for 2020, and noted that it will likely land at the upper end of that range. During the quarter “we spent a higher percentage of our dollars and our energy on network than I can remember, and yet delivered in-quarter results in a promotionally intensive period,” Sievert said.

CFO Braxton Carter explained that much of T-Mobile’s capex is project oriented and since it has deployed expansive coverage on low-band spectrum, it’s now shifting greater investment into 5G and continued rollout on 600 MHz spectrum.

“We continue to push on that 600 MHz framework,” Ray added. “We can readily take that [coverage] number up 30-40% in 2020, so that footprint’s going to expand materially.”

T-Mobile banked $751 in net income on $11.9 billion in revenue during the quarter, representing a 4% year-over-year increase in revenue and 17% in profit. Reported revenue from services also reached $8.7 billion during the quarter, up 6% from the year-ago quarter and on an annualized basis.