T-Mobile is no doubt riding a high today with some of the best quarterly numbers the company has seen in years and they aren’t shying away from what the future might hold. In an interview with CNBC, T-Mobile CEO John Legere didn’t hold back from poking the competition and emphasizing that Uncarrier “Phase 3” is “right around the corner.”
“Stay tuned for Un-carrier 3.0,” Legere said. “The fun is just beginning.”
In fact, Legere highlighted that AT&T is in what he called “fight back mode” at the moment. Legere emphasized that T-Mobile is taking 2 AT&T customers for every 1 T-Mobile customer AT&T is getting back. Legere might have been a little bold in stating that AT&T customers are “completely unsatisfied” with AT&T as the company grabbed its first ever top place in a JD Power award in customer service last month. Still, T-Mobile’s aggressive moves have helped it grab customers from other carriers and led to the best quarter the carrier has had in recent memory.
In an interview with All Things D, Legere talked about how the iPhone was helping T-Mobile, but remained focus on the company’s moves that helped it in the second quarter.
“The postpaid phone net adds for T-Mobile exceeded those of AT&T, Sprint and Verizon (added) together,” Legere said. “To me that’s one of the strongest statements you can make about a quarter.”
Furthermore, T-Mobile CMO told the site that the company has signed up 700,000 customers to the company’s JUMP! program.
“We are rapidly on the march to one million,” Sievert said.
Legere attributes around 21% of the carrier’s smartphone sales last quarter to the iPhone, which means right around 900,000 iPhone sales. As for company’s other high-profile launch: the Galaxy S 4 attributed for 600,000 in sales but again, Legere won’t attribute the company’s success in recent months to any one device.
Legere did say that he looks forward to more business with Apple, including carrying products along the iPhone, perhaps referring to the iPad in the future.
“I think there’s a whole array of Apple products that we look forward to carrying,” Legere said. “We will expand what we offer from them.”
It seems worth noting that today’s quarterly numbers and the overall attitude of the company’s execs on the investor call show that while T-Mobile might be the smallest of the nationwide carriers, it no longer qualifies as “small.” With 44 million customers, a lot of spectrum being turned into a formidable LTE network and the anticipation over “Uncarrier Phase 3,” T-Mobile is no longer the little carrier that could. The notion that both AT&T and Verizon introduced upgrade plans very similar to T-Mobile’s JUMP! program in short order offers evidence that T-Mobile is no longer being ignored. Now, it’s ignore T-Mobile and face the social media and interview wrath of their unleashed CEO, John Legere.
Investor call highlights:
- 4G LTE rollout and modernization
- 157 million 4G LTE POPs in 116 metro areas
- 200 million POPs prior to the end of 2013
- 73 of Top 100 markets
- Blazing fast 4G LTE performance Solid 4G HSPA+ network
- 228 million POPs on AWS spectrum
- 180 million POPs on 1900 MHz spectrum Improving spectrum position
- US Cellular spectrum acquisition expected to bolster spectrum position in key markets
- On track for 20+20 MHz 4G LTE in 90% of Top 25 markets in 2014+
- Un-carrier 1.0 & 2.0 – significant improvement in customer momentum – 685k branded postpaid phone net adds – leading the industry in Q2 – 688k branded postpaid net adds – 77% YoY increase in postpaid gross adds – 1.58% churn – all-time low
- Rapidly expanding 4G LTE footprint – 4G LTE roll out proceeding ahead of schedule – On path to 20+20 MHz 4G LTE in 90% of Top 25 markets
- MetroPCS integration proceeding ahead of plan
- Doubling MetroPCS markets – first 15 markets in 10 years, next 15 markets in 10 weeks
- Strong cash position with $2.4 billion ending cash
- Stay tuned for Un-carrier 3.0