What does T-Mobile US CEO John Legere have to say about comments from parent company Deutsche Telekom this week calling his “Uncarrier” approach unsustainable?
“Its total bullshit,” according to a brief response from Legere referring to comments made by Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Höttges in an interview earlier this week.
According to Re/code, Höttges “admitted that T-Mobile’s current approach is not sustainable” during the interview: “The question is always the economics in the long term … and earning appropriate money,” Hoettges said. “You have to earn your money back at one point in time.”
Höttges also noted that he was “intrigued by the idea of having a combination with Sprint and being the ‘super-maverick’ in the market,” referring to T-Mobile’s plans for a merger with the company that fell through last year.
On sustainability, Höttges claimed T-Mobile’s aggressive discounts and Uncarrier approach would not work long-term as the company invests approximately $4-$5 billion each year to keep up with the other carriers.
Despite disagreements on sustainability, Höttges did briefly attempt to praise Legere’s work during the interview: “His management style will never be adaptable to Germany,”Hoettges said, although he added that Legere’s competitive nature and desire to win are very much in line with the company’s culture. “I like people being disruptive… I like people who are brave. He is very much fitting to our DNA, how we want to be, even if he is very American in his approach.”
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I love this guy.
I’m not really a fan of his personality but I do appreciate what he is doing for the entire wireless market (I know that I’ve benefitted from it). I used to be skeptical of his business plan until T-Mobile announced a very healthy profit not long ago.
It seems pretty obvious to me Hottges really just wants to wash his hands free of T-Mobile and he was probably rooting for AT&T and SoftBank to do him a favor.
People resort to foul language when they have nothing intelligent to say….Tmobile really needs to get a little class if they want to be a long term player. Tweens will fall for this foul mouthed fool but adults with jobs wont be attracted to low class CEOs
“People resort to foul language when they have nothing intelligent to say”
People also resort to cliches when they can’t back up what they’re saying.
Thats not a cliche its a fact. But by all means defend the foul mouthed 50 year old who cant defend his company losing money, just spews vulgarity.
Nothing irritates me more than when people miss the message because all they hear are the swear words and they can’t get past it. If you are simple minded enough to happily pay more to a company whose CEO doesn’t use “foul” language, by all means, go ahead.
He certainly gets attention for the carrier. When people are faced with not enough money and the need for a cell phone they’ll sign up with a company regardless of the CEO’s choice of language if it meets their needs. I have a couple of friends who certainly don’t approve of language like that (much less use it themselves) but they recently switched.
Sure, not classy, but it’s short, simple and says a lot. It seems to me he’s happy to be seen as the non-classy type.
The short story of the wireless customer is that I decide who gets my business based on the value they provide to me for a given price.
I left Verizon. As more people start to notice a big difference between price and value, more will be leaving Verizon.
I left Verizon for T-Mobile as well. I’m getting a much better value now, and my service is actually better!
I genuinely like Legere. If nothing else, he’s entertaining and has forced other carriers to offer more.
Crass or not, T-mobile offers me a FAR better value pound for pound than either Verizon or ATT. My wife and I switched when the iPhone 6 came out, and haven’t looked back. We’ve shaved roughly a third off our monthly bill, along with other benefits. T-mobile isn’t for everyone. Their network is definitely more spotty than the big boys, but if you’re in an area where it works for you (we get almost 100Mbps at our house!), then T-mo definitely rocks. Their CEO may be a classless public speaker, but dang if he isn’t getting the job done and making people take notice.