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T-Mobile was asked to turn over more customer info than its larger rivals

The nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier fielded more government data requests than AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

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Roger Cheng
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T-Mobile disclosed its first-ever transparency report on Thursday. T-Mobile USA

T-Mobile received nearly 351,940 government requests for data in 2014, the most out of any of the four national wireless carriers.

The nation's fourth-largest carrier by subscriber base disclosed in its transparency report on Wednesday that it had fielded 177,549 criminal and civil subpeonas, 17,316 warrants and more than 3,000 wiretap orders.

It marked the first time T-Mobile issued a transparency report, which have become increasingly popular over the past year as civil liberties groups, shareholder and consumer advocates have pressured companies to be more open about when they disclose customer information. T-Mobile was the last of the four national carriers to issue a report, which comes amid continued scrutiny of surveillance programs run by the US National Security Agency -- including the bulk collection of phone call data -- that were revealed when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified government documents.

The requests kept T-Mobile busy last year -- the number of requests jumped nearly 11 percent from 2013.

A T-Mobile spokesman wasn't available to comment on the increase in requests.

Despite T-Mobile's smaller customer base (Verizon and AT&T each have nearly twice as many customers), the carrier fielded more requests than its rivals. AT&T, for instance, saw 263,755 requests, while Verizon saw 287,559. Sprint saw 308,937 requests.

On the wiretap front, AT&T received 2,420 orders, Verizon received 1,433 and Sprint received 3,772.

T-Mobile, meanwhile, received between 2,000 and 2,250 national security requests for data, and eight requests from foreign governments.

T-Mobile's report was issued after Amazon, which ZDNet noted was the last major tech company in the Fortune 500 to issue a transparency report, and came more than a year and a half after Verizon issued its first report. Companies aren't under legal obligation to disclose the data, but have been willing to share with the hope that the reports will help repair their reputations, which have been damaged by the Snowden revelations of the past two years.