T-Mobile US revealed plans to launch a new advertising programme which will allow it to share subscriber data with third parties, following rivals in a bid to capitalise on interest in targeted marketing.

An operator representative told Mobile World Live it will begin collecting information including “broadband usage data and app data” from T-Mobile and legacy Sprint customers on 26 April, “to allow us and third parties to provide interest-based ads”.

The representative added it is notifying customers and “made it easy for them to opt out” of sharing their information through their account settings.

Rivals AT&T and Verizon already have similar data-sharing programmes in place. Sprint customers previously had to opt-in.

US operators have long eyed the digital advertising market as a potential revenue stream, with AT&T (through its acquisition of AppNexus in 2018) and Verizon (through the combination of assets purchased from AOL and Yahoo!) each attempting to develop targeted marketing platforms. However, both struggled to find success.

T-Mobile now appears to be making a move: GeekWire reported the operator acquired mobile marketing start-up PushSpring in July 2019, and a job listing on the operator’s website yesterday (9 March) showed it was looking to fill a role in a “newly formed” marketing unit within its Emerging Business Group with a focus on a “mobile-originated marketing platform”.