John Legere, President and CEO of T-Mobile and former CEO of Global Crossing, known for his extraordinary energy and a knack for hitting out directly at T-Mobile competitors, made more headlines this week with his predictions for 2015. Legere who helms the fourth largest operator in the US, has pushed towards the rebranding and repositioning of T-Mobile leading to the launch of a series of 'Un-Carrier' initiatives which are aimed at promoting newer and more innovative mobile plans and packages for subscribers. Legere who gets wide media coverage for his unique personal style, active engagement with the media and his highly publicized programs aimed at increasing T-Mobile's market share said in his announcement that he is very confident that T-Mobile will - officially - become the No. 3 wireless company in America in 2015, saying that 'it’s a done deal!', but will let the official 2014 Q4 earnings to seal it off.
The following are some snippets from the full list of predictions announced by Legere:
1. The wireless revolution has not only been sparked, it’s become a movement – and it’s not slowing down, it’s speeding up....to warp speed.
I said we would change wireless for the better and we are. Revolutionizing this industry has always been about truly reinventing it. The other guys will keep trying to fake their way through – with their eye on their own bottom line – but we will keep shaking things up and forcing change.
2. We’ll go toe-to-toe with Verizon’s network almost everywhere … and win.
I love it when people share their network speed tests, and T-Mobile is just blazing fast. But, I love it even more when people tell me where they have coverage gaps vs. the duopoly.
Today, we reach 264 million Americans with our LTE network. Verizon reaches 303 million. So, yeah, there are places we don’t reach yet. But, here’s the interesting part, where we do reach the same people our LTE network is the fastest nationwide.
3. Wearables and phablets will be the big device stories of 2015 (and maybe some connected cars!)
I love what Jawbone, Fitbit, Samsung, LG, Microsoft and others are doing in the wearables space. But we haven’t begun to see the potential of this category. It’s going to go from $1 to $20 billion in the next few years. And though we won’t see its full impact in 2015, I believe that the Apple Watch will mark the tipping point when wearables go from niche to mainstream. At the same time, phablet sales will continue to sky rocket – up at least 50%.
4. I’ll be in conversation with nearly 2M Twitter followers (at the very least 1.5M...) by the end of the year.
Listening is the most important thing I do as CEO, and Twitter has been a huge boon, helping me stay in touch with nearly 900,000 followers today and stay on top of their questions and eliminate their pain points. I get my best ideas by listening to customers, and by the end of 2015, more than 2 million people will be part of this ongoing, open conversation - which you can join @JohnLegere.
5. DC is going to be very busy on regulatory issues for the Wireless Industry.
Like it or not! Spectrum will continue to be the lifeblood of wireless and the Government will keep driving for balance across this industry -- and well beyond the duopolists. The AWS auction will end, and the broadcast incentive auction should gear up for the New Year.
6. MetroPCS will pull even further ahead of the prepaid pack.
The blistering pace of growth in 2014 - expanding from 15 to 45 metro areas - will lead to MetroPCS cementing its leadership position in the prepaid space in 2015. We’re already #1 in prepaid among the big national providers. And we are continuing to open new doors, add new handsets and offer new solutions to these customers.
7. We’ll bring Un-carrier to whole new groups of people.
We’ll make more Un-carrier moves and continue to improve and expand past moves. And, we’ll take the Un-carrier movement to entirely new groups of people. For instance… Did you know like a quarter of the people in this country don’t yet have a smartphone, and a quarter of households don’t have Internet access? They need some Un-carrier attention!
