Eerily mirroring the situation with T-Mobile in the UK, disgruntled Deutsche Telekom shareholders are apparently now turning their attention to the company's US outpost, now that the British woes are on the fast track to resolution thanks to a
tie-up with Orange. The
Financial Times is reporting that the bell isn't tolling quite yet for T-Mobile USA -- key players are still on board with the company's plan to get back into the game with an accelerated 3G rollout, which means that alternative strategies aren't actively being considered right this second. Word has it that the clock has been set for mid-2010, though, at which point red ink on the balance sheet is going to mean a more drastic change in direction -- something like a merger with Sprint or a move to transform the carrier into an ultra-value brand concentrating on prepaid service with a possible MetroPCS or Leap / Cricket buy. What color do you get when you combine magenta and yellow, anyway?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kershon @ Sep 16th 2009 12:11AM
Magenta+yellow=crap. I don't see that happening. I called T-Mobile customer service a while ago and during the course of conversation I asked if T-Mo was indeed going to carry the Nokia N900. She told me yes but that was all she could tell me. No word of pre-order, launch date or price. So with an awesome device like that plus the Bold 9700, Moto Cliq, and fast and furious 3G rollout' I see no reason for T-Mo to be anything other than in the black next year.
mmaestro @ Sep 16th 2009 12:45AM
The 3G rollout costs money, I'm not sure how much it'll make, unless people start jumping ship from other carriers for T-Mobile's 3G. Doing a fast rollout has got to be expensive, even if it attracts new customers, it would have to attract a lot to offset the cost of the rollout.
Omagus @ Sep 16th 2009 9:41AM
Kershon, buddy...if nice phones and a 3G rollout were all it took for a wireless network to be profitable, Sprint would not be in the situation it is now.
Jacob @ Sep 16th 2009 7:02AM
Magenta + yellow = bloody pee color. Yech.
ace587 @ Sep 16th 2009 8:22AM
good, they should leave Sprint alone
Bluecat @ Sep 16th 2009 10:25AM
Omagus I wasn't trying to say that these things are the only reason I think T-Mobile will pretty well. They really could give their marketing game an overhaul as well. They could take a few lessons from Apple. I still think T-Mo will do ok though. On another note, Catherine Zeta-Jones can give me a mobile makeover any time. Lol
Darren @ Sep 16th 2009 10:54AM
The 3G upgrade for T-Mo in the US is completely moot at this point. The very best they can hope to accomplish is to bring themselves somewhere near parity with the rest of the US carriers, who have had 3G for years, and are already rolling out _4G_ in some places.
If they have any prayer of surviving here, they're going to need to do something drastic. As I see it, they can do one of two things.
1) Scrap the 3G rollout and start planning for 4G. If they can get a decent 4G network online relatively soon, they might have an opportunity to win back some business customers.
2) Do exactly what the article says. Give up the ghost about being competitive in the business market, cobble up one of the low-cost carriers, and go for the prepaid market.
Frankly, I don't see them being very successful with #1. Even if they had the network, they have serious image problems here in the States. Going back to when they were VoiceStream and before, the T-Mobile brand has always had an image of a low-cost, second-tier carrier. They've never been good at marketing to business users. That's an image they aren't going to change easily.
Spinnukur @ Oct 12th 2009 5:30PM
Douche, T-Mobile already started rolling out 4G, they just released it in Philadelphia and are planning on releasing it in New York, LA, Las Vegas, Boston before the end of Feb next year. Only networks that have actually setup any 4G is Sprint and T-Mobile... so the fact that you say 'they need to plan for 4G' just makes you look like a baka gaijin!
Would you like a cup of STFU with that stupidity?
Mankato @ Sep 16th 2009 11:41AM
Darren, T-mobile's 3G rollout is at a state from where they can not scrap. They should hasten the rollout of HSPA . They should cover around 210 million pops by the end of the year. That is a good number. They have started talking about 4G and should hasten the process.
T-mobile consider tie up with Metro and Leap rather than Sprint. That would give T-Mobile another 10 million customer and make them 3rd largest carrier. They should market themselves aggressively from that point. Sprint has already committed to Wimax while Metro PCS committed to LTE which is exactly what T-Mobile has in their mind.It makes more sense and will save headache in the future.
Craig McRae @ Oct 12th 2009 11:34AM
I do like the Palm Pre and WebOS, would be nice to have the option on the carrier. I'm a huge Android fan, so i'd probably have one of each.
Oce @ Oct 13th 2009 11:05AM
It really escapes me how anyone could like the Palm Pre. WebOS yeah, but the Pre;barf.