T-Mobile US CEO John Legere: will overtake Sprint this year

T-Mobile US president and CEO John Legere today revealed his ambition to overtake Sprint in terms of total customers by the end of this year.

T-Mobile US says the Un-carrier now has over 50 million customers. In the second quarter of 2014, T-Mobile US added 1.5 million net new customers for a fifth straight quarter with over 1 million total net new customers. And the Un-carrier again led the overall industry in growth, beating out rivals AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

Also read: Sprint appoints Marcelo Claure as CEO after Dan Hesse steps down

Is it a warning signal to Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, who will be taking the position from Dan Hesse?

Legere is ready to discuss his targets. Till yesterday, both companies were in takeover discussions that fell through due to tough regulatory norms. Now, it is time for overtaking the nearest rival.

The statement assumes significance because Sprint promoters SoftBank will not be chasing T-Mobile US for a merger. Without adding T-Mobile, Sprint and its promoter SoftBank will not have a bright future in America.

John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile US, said: “I predict we’ll overtake Sprint in total customers by the end of this year. Not someday. Not next year. This year Americans are voting with their feet, and they’re joining this Un-carrier revolution by the millions.”

John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile

Eric Costa, telecom analyst, TBR, recently: “T-Mobile’s aggressive pricing strategy to procure subscribers is exemplified by a limited time Simple Choice promotion launched in July that offers a family of four unlimited talk, text, and 10 GB of data for $100/month through the end of 2015.”

The plan directly targets AT&T and Verizon’s shared data plans and are significantly less expensive. The plans, which will be available for customers to enroll in through September, will help draw in postpaid subscribers in Q3 2014 but will have a negative impact on ARPU as the programs are $60/month cheaper than comparable plans offered by competitors.

A recent TBR analyst report said T-Mobile will increase the MetroPCS footprint to continue to gain momentum in the prepaid market in H2 2014.

Expanding the MetroPCS footprint will allow T-Mobile to drive higher prepaid revenue, subscribers and ARPU in H2 2014.

MetroPCS subscribers bring in a higher ARPU than T-Mobile’s other prepaid offerings. The prepaid market is currently open for T-Mobile to capitalize on in H2 2014, as the other Tier 1 operators lost prepaid subscribers in Q2 2014. T-Mobile already expanded the MetroPCS brand to over 30 new markets since the acquisition was finalized in 2013.

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