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Three consumer prepaid brands are clearly identified as part of T-Mobile: Metro by T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Ultra Mobile. T-Mobile’s latest annual filing, its May 1, 2024 acquisition announcement, and related regulatory material support those three relationships. The often-repeated list of “four” T-Mobile-owned carriers cannot be completed from those primary sources without guessing a fourth name.
That distinction matters because a carrier can use T-Mobile’s wireless network without being owned by T-Mobile. The sections below separate corporate ownership from network access, explain how each confirmed brand fits into T-Mobile’s portfolio, and show how to verify ownership when brands or corporate structures change.
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The three T-Mobile-owned prepaid brands that can be confirmed
T-Mobile’s 2025 Form 10-K, filed in 2026, says the company serves prepaid customers under four names: T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Ultra Mobile. In the same filing, T-Mobile identifies T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, and Mint Mobile as flagship brands. A separate T-Mobile newsroom announcement dated May 1, 2024, says the company completed its acquisition of Ka’ena Corporation, whose businesses included Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallThose disclosures establish three distinct consumer prepaid brands beyond the core T-Mobile name. They do not establish a fourth separately owned carrier that fits the headline’s count.
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| Brand | What the dated disclosures establish | How to describe it accurately |
|---|---|---|
| Metro by T-Mobile | T-Mobile’s 2025 Form 10-K lists Metro among its prepaid offerings and flagship brands. A 2023 T-Mobile announcement also calls Metro an existing prepaid service. | A T-Mobile prepaid brand operating inside the company’s consumer portfolio. |
| Mint Mobile | T-Mobile’s May 1, 2024 closing announcement says Mint was included in the completed Ka’ena acquisition. The 2025 Form 10-K lists Mint as a prepaid and flagship brand. | A Ka’ena consumer brand acquired by T-Mobile and retained in the prepaid lineup. |
| Ultra Mobile | The closing announcement says Ultra was included in the Ka’ena acquisition. T-Mobile’s 2025 Form 10-K lists Ultra among its prepaid brands. | A Ka’ena consumer brand now included in T-Mobile’s prepaid portfolio. |
| Fourth name | No fourth distinct consumer carrier is identified by the cited filings and announcements. | Unresolved; naming one would go beyond the available evidence. |
The table is deliberately limited to what the company’s own disclosures support. A list that fills a fourth slot with a different brand may be drawing on an older corporate relationship, a network-hosting arrangement, or an unsourced assumption rather than a confirmed T-Mobile ownership statement.
Why using T-Mobile’s network is not the same as being owned by T-Mobile
Wireless terminology often collapses two different relationships into one. Network access describes whose radio infrastructure carries a customer’s traffic. Ownership describes which corporation controls the carrier’s business, brand, contracts, and financial reporting. A company can buy wholesale capacity from T-Mobile and sell service under its own name while remaining an independent business.
Network access is a service arrangement
A network-hosting or wholesale agreement allows a separate provider to use another operator’s towers, spectrum, core systems, or other facilities. The customer may see T-Mobile coverage, but that observation alone does not prove that T-Mobile owns the retail brand. The provider could have its own management, billing operation, marketing, and parent company.
Ownership is a corporate-control question
To verify ownership, look for an acquisition closing announcement, a parent company’s annual filing, or another regulatory document that identifies the relationship. A carrier belongs on an “owned by T-Mobile” list only when those documents connect the brand to T-Mobile’s corporate structure or an acquired subsidiary. Advertising language such as “runs on” or “powered by” a network answers a different question.
Ultra Mobile shows why the distinction matters
In 2023, T-Mobile described Ultra as operating on its network. A Federal Communications Commission notice from May 2023 likewise reported that the applicants said Mint and Ultra operated exclusively on T-Mobile’s network. Those statements establish network use. The later May 1, 2024 closing announcement establishes the separate ownership event: Mint and Ultra were part of Ka’ena, and T-Mobile completed the acquisition of Ka’ena.
How T-Mobile’s ownership of Mint and Ultra developed
March 15, 2023: proposed Ka’ena transaction
T-Mobile announced a proposed transaction for Ka’ena Corporation on March 15, 2023. In that announcement, Chief Executive Officer Mike Sievert described Mint and Ultra as complementary to T-Mobile’s existing prepaid offerings: “The Mint and Ultra brands are complementary to the company’s current prepaid service offerings Metro by T-Mobile, T-Mobile branded prepaid and Connect by T-Mobile.” The wording placed the two brands alongside Metro and other T-Mobile prepaid services, but the transaction was still only proposed at that stage.
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May 2023: regulatory notice
A May 2023 FCC notice addressed the transaction and reported the applicants’ statement that Mint and Ultra operated exclusively on T-Mobile’s network. That notice is useful for understanding network dependence, but it should not be read as the closing of the acquisition or as proof that every brand using the network was already T-Mobile-owned.
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T-Mobile’s newsroom said it completed the Ka’ena acquisition on May 1, 2024. The announcement expressly said Ka’ena included Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile. Mike Katz, T-Mobile’s President of Marketing, Strategy and Products, called the combination “a win-win all around – a perfect pairing of highly complementary brands coming together on our industry-best 5G network to continue shaking things up for the benefit of customers.” The quote is promotional language; the concrete ownership fact is the completed acquisition and the named Ka’ena businesses.
2025 filing, submitted in 2026: current portfolio description
T-Mobile’s 2025 Form 10-K, filed in 2026, is the most current primary source identified here. It lists prepaid customers under T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Ultra Mobile, and identifies T-Mobile, Metro, and Mint as flagship brands. Because ownership and branding can change, a future filing should be checked before treating this list as permanent.
Metro by T-Mobile: the established T-Mobile prepaid brand
Metro is the clearest example of a brand that sits directly inside T-Mobile’s prepaid strategy. T-Mobile’s 2025 Form 10-K places Metro among its prepaid offerings and flagship brands. The company’s March 2023 Ka’ena announcement also referred to Metro as one of its existing prepaid service offerings, distinguishing Metro from the Mint and Ultra businesses that were being acquired through Ka’ena.
The available primary statements do not provide enough detail to reconstruct Metro’s entire acquisition history, so it is better not to attach an unsupported transaction date or purchase narrative to the brand. The defensible description is simpler: Metro by T-Mobile is a T-Mobile prepaid brand, not merely an independent carrier leasing T-Mobile coverage.
Mint Mobile: acquired through Ka’ena
Mint Mobile’s ownership path is tied to Ka’ena. The May 1, 2024 closing announcement says Mint was included in the completed acquisition. T-Mobile’s 2025 Form 10-K subsequently lists Mint among its prepaid and flagship brands. Together, those documents support describing Mint as a T-Mobile-owned consumer prepaid brand after the closing.
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The same announcement said Mint and Ultra would continue operating autonomously while remaining closely aligned with the broader company. “Autonomously” does not mean independent ownership; it describes how a business can retain operational separation, a distinct identity, or its own day-to-day processes while belonging to a larger parent. Readers should therefore distinguish a separate customer-facing brand from a separate corporate owner.
Ultra Mobile: acquired brand, not just a network reseller
Ultra Mobile was also included in the Ka’ena acquisition completed on May 1, 2024. T-Mobile’s 2025 Form 10-K lists Ultra among its prepaid brands, while the earlier 2023 announcement and May 2023 FCC notice describe Ultra’s operation on T-Mobile’s network. Taken in sequence, the sources show both sides of the relationship: network access existed before the closing, and corporate ownership followed when T-Mobile completed the Ka’ena purchase.
That sequence is a useful warning against using coverage maps or SIM-card behavior as an ownership test. Seeing a T-Mobile network identifier on a phone can demonstrate where service is being delivered; it cannot, by itself, identify the parent company.
What “operating autonomously” means for customers
T-Mobile’s closing announcement said Mint and Ultra would continue operating autonomously while closely aligned with T-Mobile. Customers may therefore encounter separate brand names, websites, support channels, plan designs, or retail experiences even though the parent company owns the businesses. Corporate ownership does not require every brand to be merged into one storefront.
Operational autonomy also means that ownership alone does not answer practical service questions. The documents used here do not establish which brand has the lowest current price, the most high-speed data, the broadest international options, a particular hotspot allowance, or a specific network-priority policy. Those details belong to current plan terms and can change independently of the ownership structure.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the fourth carrier remains unresolved
The headline’s number four is not supported by the identified primary sources. T-Mobile’s filing names four prepaid labels if the main T-Mobile brand is counted, but only three distinct prepaid brands besides the parent name are relevant to a list of carriers people might not realize T-Mobile owns: Metro, Mint, and Ultra. The Ka’ena announcement names two acquired consumer brands, not a fourth.
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There are several ways a four-item list can become misleading: it may count T-Mobile itself as a separate carrier, treat a wholesale provider as a consumer carrier, confuse a former relationship with current ownership, or rely on a secondary article that does not match the latest filing. None of those approaches supplies a verified fourth brand from the documents described here. Leaving the slot unresolved is more accurate than presenting an unverified name as fact.
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How to verify a carrier’s ownership before switching
Ownership can change after a plan review or a network map is published. Use this short verification process whenever a list claims that a carrier belongs to T-Mobile:
- Find the parent company’s latest annual filing. Search the filing for the carrier’s legal or brand name and note whether it appears under prepaid brands, subsidiaries, or a different business segment.
- Look for a closing announcement, not only a proposal. An announced transaction may still require approvals or may change before completion. Confirm the date on which the acquisition actually closed.
- Separate network language from ownership language. “Uses,” “runs on,” or “operates on” describes network access. “Acquired,” “subsidiary,” or inclusion in the parent’s brand portfolio addresses control.
- Check the date and geography. A relationship can differ by country, and a historical brand arrangement may no longer apply. Keep the date attached to every conclusion.
- Read the current plan terms separately. Ownership does not establish price, data limits, roaming, hotspot rules, customer support, or retail access. Verify those items on the brand’s current official plan pages before buying service.
What this ownership information can—and cannot—tell you
Knowing that Metro, Mint, and Ultra are T-Mobile-owned helps explain why their corporate disclosures and network relationships may overlap. It can also clarify why a brand may remain visually distinct while sharing a parent company. However, ownership is not a quality ranking. It does not prove that one brand has better coverage, faster data, stronger support, or a better deal for a particular user.
For a service decision, compare the current monthly or annual price, included high-speed data, throttling terms, international calling and roaming, hotspot rules, coverage in the places you use your phone, network-priority language, and available support or retail channels. Those variables require current plan documentation rather than an ownership list.
Bottom line: three confirmed names, not four
Based on T-Mobile’s 2025 Form 10-K and the May 1, 2024 Ka’ena closing announcement, the confirmed T-Mobile-owned prepaid brands in this context are Metro by T-Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Ultra Mobile. Mint and Ultra joined T-Mobile through Ka’ena, while Metro is identified directly as an existing T-Mobile prepaid and flagship brand. A fourth distinct carrier is not verified by these sources, so any complete four-name list should be treated as unconfirmed until a current T-Mobile filing or transaction document identifies the missing brand.
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