T-Mobile Completes Sprint Merger To Pursue 5G Future, John Legere Steps Down As CEO
With the announcement that the merger has been completed, enthusiastic (and often times foul-mouthed) CEO John Legere is stepping down. This executive change was first announced last year, so we knew it was coming. What was unexpected, however, was that the transition would happen a month early. It was previously stated that Legere would step down on May 1st, 2020.
In his place, the new CEO of T-Mobile is Mike Sievert, who Legere first hired back in 2012. "Mike was the first person I hired at T-Mobile and I have tremendous faith in his ability to take the Un-carrier into its next SUPERCHARGED chapter," said Legere. "Between his leadership, his expanded and talented leadership team and the amazing people at T-Mobile, the future is SO bright!"
Sievert is being handed the reins to a company that is now well-positioned to take on the two giants in the U.S. wireless market. Legere did much to change T-Mobile's brand perception in the past 7 years, and kicked off a number of Uncarrier initiatives that not only brought new customers, but also prompted change in the industry. We can partially thank T-Mobile for the renewed embrace of "unlimited data" in recent years.
“The New T-Mobile’s commitment to delivering a transformative broad and deep nationwide 5G network is more important and more needed than ever and what we are building is mission-critical for consumers,” said Sievert, who now serves as president and CEO of T-Mobile. “With this powerful network, the New T-Mobile will deliver real choice and value to wireless and home broadband customers and double down on all the things customers have always loved about the Un-carrier."
Going forward, T-Mobile is looking to make some big strides in network capacity and speed in an effort to better tussle with Verizon and AT&T. T-Mobile reasoned in the past that acquiring Sprint was the only way that it would be able to compete in this 5G-fueled networking future. According to Sievert, T-Mobile will have 14 times the network capacity (compared to right now) within the next six years, and that 5G speeds will be 8 times faster than current LTE speeds within that same time period. He also makes the bold prediction that 99 percent of Americans will have access to T-Mobile 5G, and 90 percent of those customers will enjoy average speeds of at least 100Mbps.
At this point, T-Mobile has not said exactly what will happen to the Sprint brand or the many Sprint retail stores that blanket the nation. We'd assume however, that some of them will be closed altogether, while many will be remodeled/renamed to T-Mobile stores.
