Speaking to reporters following T-Mobile’s Apple agreement announcement, CEO John Legere offered an incredibly lofty goal for 2013. Legere’s hope with the addition of the iPhone to T-Mobile’s lineup is that the company can stop the leaking customer faucet and help return the company to subscriber growth as early as 2013.
“It is an aggressive target but we think it is possible,” said Legere.
It’s an aggressive goal to be sure and a comment that mirrors his earlier presentation which indicated his hopes a newly aggressive company (the “Un-Carrier”) overhaul will make a difference in the wireless marketplace.
T-Mobile lost 510,000 branded contract customers in the first quarter of this year, 557,000 in the second quarter and 492,000 in the third quarter so there’s a tough road ahead if Legere’s goal is to come to fruition. Still, early analyst estimate places sales of the iPhone on T-Mobile’s network at 4-5 million next year, so its possible that Legere could quickly stem the subscriber losses. With customers now having options from the four largest smartphone platforms on T-Mobile and the company working aggressively to compete on price, I’m hopeful they can make a quick turnaround and return to customer growth. Here’s hoping.