Why covering Wireless Networks just became fun again…

I admit it… I follow Wireless Network Carriers with a passion.  But until this week, following the carriers was getting a little boring.  We knew how the players operated for the most part.  AT&T and Verizon were the biggest fishes in the pond being the two children directly linked with old Ma Bell, Sprint was the disruptive force trying to innovate, and T-Mobile was… well, we couldn’t make heads or tails of what they were trying to do.

Well, over the past year, T-Mobile’s executives tried to change those perceptions with a number of move meant to shake up the other 3 Tier 1 U.S. providers.  First, T-Mobile’s merger with Metro PCS and their subsequent launch of their own LTE network suddenly gave T-Mobile a critical foothold in the 4G battle raging across the country.  Then the new strategy of eliminating 2-year contracts and international roaming charges shook up the industry as T-Mobile sought to re-brand itself as the “Un-Carrier”.  But this week, T-Mobile’s Maverick CEO, John Legere, and CTO, Neville Ray, came out swinging at wireless rivals with a combative presence & presentation at CES2014 in Las Vegas.

First, Legere found a way to crash AT&T’s CES Party just so he could see Macklemore, and got thrown out, making huge headlines.  Then, on the stage at CES, Neville Ray went medieval on Sprint’s Dan Hesse, calling Sprint’s Network Vision’s Upgrade a “Sh!tstorm”, taunting Sprint’s slow LTE speeds, and saying Sprint is unwilling to sell Spark products, calling it a Treasure Hunt.  Then Legere continued the assault on Sprint while turning his attention to the company that threw him out of its party.  Legere claims that T-Mobile’s LTE Network is now the Fastest Network in the US (not AT&T), and that Government tests prove it.  He also took aim at AT&T’s plan to get T-Mobile’s customers to switch to AT&T by promising to pay for all charges customers would incur to break their contracts with the other Big 3 companies, up to $650.  In short, T-Mobile with their presentation, became the big attraction at CES.

Not bad for a company that 3 years ago was almost taken over by AT&T and now faces a possible take-over by Sprint.  Legere seems unconvinced that Sprint is a force, calling it basically spectrum that is waiting to be used.  Those words, and the words of Neville Ray may come back to haunt T-Mobile if Japan’s Softbank works out an agreement with T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, to buy its US affiliate.  But for now, T-Mobile, is flying high, adding customers, and adding valuable spectrum through spectrum swaps with Verizon Wireless.

Can T-Mobile keep up the pace?  It’s not clear, but Legere and the rest of T-Mobile appear to be wanting to be a disruptive force. This could get interesting…