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Facts have been faced: T-Mobile has been the nation’s number four carrier for a long time now, and the situation doesn’t look to be improving. Deutsche Telekom – T-Mobile’s parent company based out in Germany – knows this, and their CEO is looking to meet with T-Mobile USA’s CEO sometime next week (when, where, and how wasn’t revealed by Reuters, the originators of the report) to discuss what steps and strategies they’ll be taking to improve.
“In the US, we need an aggressive marketing policy and customer-friendly pricing,” says CEO Obermann. “We have to improve our arguments as to why customers should come to us or stay with us.”
A change in marketing strategy sometime in the middle of last year seemed to be a step in the right direction, but according to quarterly numbers, T-Mobile remained stagnant. T-Mobile is already one of the more competitive carriers in terms of pricing, but could they be wanting to provide even more value over the big four and pull in more customers from the lower tier carriers?
Their device strategy isn’t bad (at least as far as the majority of their subscribers are concerned), so I can’t see them wanting to shake things up too much there. Or perhaps not shaking things up is the issue. Who knows? All we know is that they’re meeting and that we may see a new T-Mobile in some shape or form sometime in the not-too-distant future. [via TmoNews]
I love my no contract t-mobile plan. I love that the cost of my device is not hidden over a couple of years of mobile bills. Go T-mobile!
What you need is better coverage. In my area, you could give me your phone and service for free. Sadly, it still wouldn’t be any good.
it has nothing to do with marketing or price. It has everything to do with the phones they offer. Though im a happy G2 owner, TMO doesnt have the EVO equivalent or DROID X equivalent and I know people want those types of phones. Looks even worse after CES where things like the Bionic, Astrix, and Thunderbolt were announced
Agreed. It all books down service. Verizon has it, others, well sorta do. And Verizon has it everywhere. Literally everywhere, if u took a phone from all the top four major carriers and went on a trip, everytime u stopped and checked vzw would have service and likely 2 out of the 3 wouldn’t have it. I’ve used all four of the carriers its as simple as Verizon is that much better.
also a good idea is get better pricing on post pay customer, probably like the one on sprint where you get 450 any time minutes and any mobile to any mobile with real unlimited data for 69.99 or 65.00 that would bring more customers and also let people upgrade in 12 month, that looks to be a popular demand i know i would love that,and don’t forget fire that person in charge of product selection, because tmobile needs to get better phone selection in, they need to be more aggressive in terms of pricing i think and expand that poor 3g coverage.
Yo, Tmo! Better coverage. Truth in advertising. Need I say more? You don’t have anywhere near a nationwide network, much less a nationwide “4G” network. Call it what you will, but saying it is nationwide is a blatant lie!
If tmobile don’t do something quick i see metro pcs over taking them.
Oberman is the CEO of Deutsche Telekom not of TMo USA
Don’t throttle the “unlimited” data and I wouldn’t be considering switching away from tmo.
@ksizzle
If that trip is within the US, I agree. If that trip is outside the US, I couldn’t DISAGREE more.
Three things need to be improved:
1. Data coverage is sad for Tmo in Denver. Phone (Nexus One) is constantly switching between Edge and 3G. Call drops are often.
2. Add WiFi roaming to every device – coverage at homes are usually pretty bad. But ability to use WiFi at home for phone call routing will fix that.
3. Carry more new devices, add top Motorola devices with Android (Atrix 4G) and Nokia (N8). I am tired of Asian low quality (Samsung, HTC, LG). Get us some real hardware, which won’t drop calls as often.
4. Position yourself as a top hardware carrier with the fastest growing OS (Android). And never carry iPhone.
T-mobile lost all of its edge over competitors: it was the only GSM company in the US, was known as Voicestream – AT&T caught up and surpassed Tmo fairly quickly, Tmo did not recognize the power of Android and lost all of the best devices to Verizon and now AT&T despite the fact that they carried the first Android device G1.
Catching up is much more difficult than retaining the leadership. Hopefully Deutsche Telekom CEO will snap on Tmo’s CEO shorts, so that he/she will get the act together.
@Brandon, no thanks. MT4G FTW. Those 2 phones are giant- not everyone needs a phone that can’t figure out if it wants to be a tablet or a phone.
ksizzle9 – Oh, I dunno. I can find plenty of places in the lower 48 where you’re not going to see a blip of CDMA but fortunately, there’s GSM. Plus, Bela is right, it’s nice that I can leave the country and swap out SIMS as I will and have local coverage on my own phone.
I don’t understand how people b1tch about the carriers each having better and worse coverage in the area they live in. When people don’t understand everybody lives in different places so they are probably going to get more or less coverage.!
Only reason most people i know deal with Tmobile is cuz of the whole “Sim Card” idea.Cuz other than that….Spriint plans are equivalent. Tmobile never completed their 3G rollout. People saw that. Doing what they shouldve done years ago and considering it new technology(4G) isnt fooling anyone either. For a while the whole “Sidekick” craze lured people…but that wore out. And they paid a heavy price for having Google phone exclusivity(G1/G2/Nexus) Sprint, Verizon & AT&T simply had their Stellar phones that could age well. EVO, Iphone and Droids eclipsed all of that. Not to mention the other 3 Carriers have equivalents of Pre-Paid lines.
@Tim242 None of the carriers really have 4G. 4G according to the ITU has a 1gig download speed.
Sorry but T-Mobile and Sprint really need to step up their game with their phones… Verizon is really leading the way with customer satisfaction and amazing phones, Sprint ghas only got the Evo, the Epic is 2.1, do not want. T-Mobile has the G2 and the Nexus S, which are awesome phones, if anything Sprint needs to pick up their game.
Just break it down.
Q. Why do people stick with AT&T?
A. The iPhone, because no matter how large the network is, it doesn’t mean anything if you cant use it. Hence all the jailbroken pre iPhone 4G’s ported to T-mobile.
Q. Why do people stick with Verizon?
A. Their network is incredible, deep coverage virtually all over the place. Difficult to do with GSM, but overall coverage could be improved.
Q. Why do people stick with Sprint?
A. Great high and low end phone selection. T-mobile pioneered Android, and are constantly catching up now. Was T-mobiles answer to the EVO the Vibrant!? puhleeze.
Q. Why do people stick with T-mobile?
A. Price. At one point it looked as if T-mobile was the clear choice for high functionality and state of the art phones with its’ European backing. Now, they’re acting like a 4th place telecom. The Hot Spot at home was brilliant, wasn’t marketed well. The G1 was incredible, but Verizon came back with an Incredible. The iPhone was a game changer that Deutsche Telekom cornered the European market with. In the US, it was exclusive to a company that couldn’t handle it.
First rule of playing to win, play to your strengths, and exploit your competitions weaknesses. Better coverage, better phones, better technology and stay price competitive. Oh, and it wouldn’t hurt to stop fucking people who buy $500.00 non upgradeable phones (READ: Samsung). Dump Samsung and adopt LG, and go long with HTC.
Just sayin’ is all….
coverage. baby. it’s all about coverage … and better international calling and data arrangements and rates.
Well in the UK T-mobile UK is having a merger with Orange UK which is owned by France telecom, and how about they do that?
They have worse coverage which was acceptable when they were cheaper but recently with price increases they are clearly the worst choice.
I don’t know how much these 2 guys make.. but I find it strange that they don’t meet a few times a year, and even stranger that them meeting is news.. I wish they would take advantage of their “globalness”, and do something about international data roaming rates.. $400 for 3 days on Edge, with the “same company”.. well that’s not right… maybe that’s why they don’t meet.. neither can afford the data roaming.
I guess if things don’t improve, he’s going to ship the TM-USA CEO off to the Eastern Front.
Stop stocking shit phones. That’s not entirely true. There need to be “some” shit phones, but TMO has what appears to be a high percentage of shit phones. Get more phones that have just a moderate level of quality.
Oh, loosen up the upgrade policy, where at least the lead phone (in a family plan) gets a 11 month upgrade like Sprint.
i stick with T-Mo cause they are the only carrier that doesnt rip-off. I really hope HSPA+ is successful in 2011 and 2012. If so, then T-Mo has hit a home run
Yes that is a big downfall for T-Mobile they really need GREAT phones not jus phones that will get them through the hour. They have to take pointers from Verizon but without the HIGH FUCKIN PRICES! but then again Verizon Is for Coverage not SPEED!!!!!!! T-Mobile is for Speed but I have 3G and 4G coverage everywhere I go though and I’m in New Orleans. LIKE NO LIES
Maybe they should jus Bring SideKick back and get Motorola and HTC to make them wit Android. Those two manufacturers are great with stylish High End phones
Yeah something needs to be done with Tmobiles phone selection. Need some phones that are equally to the phones Verizon is offering.
From my perspective as a near 10 year customer of T-Mobile: A year from now I will be out of my contract with Tmo (as will my fiance), and we will be switching to Verizon. The state of phones available from Tmo is a sad state and seeing all the cool slate phones go the way of Verizon has been enough to send me heading that direction. Now, if a year from now there was signs of promise I might stay, but like their market growth, they’ve been stagnant.
Im always running on edge improve the damn network
Welp..someone has to be last. But if they want to step up their game, they should:
A. Throw up a sh*t ton of towers for better coverage (i used to have them for a bit not too long ago, and they are superb in the cities, but if you travel/roadtrip, be prepared for periods of no service!)
B. Go for broke, and get as many good phones as possible and
C. Heck, go even cheaper and offer cheaper unlimited data plans
D.iphone
and maybe then they could win over some customers
Please people SPRINT IS THE BEST CARRIER AND THE HTC EVO 4G WAS THE BEST SMARTPHONE DEVICE OF 2010 ON ALL CARRIERS PERIOD. AS OF TODAY THE HTC EVO 4G IS STILL THE BEST SMARTPHONE IN THE INDUSTRY AND IT IS 7MONTHS OLD AS OF THIS ENTRY….. NOTHING ON TMOBILE COMPARES EVEN THOUGH I GIVE THE MYTOUCH 4G PROPS CAUSE OF HTC OF COURSE AND SHOULD MENTION THE G2 TRUTHFULLY THEY DO NOT COMPARE TO THE EVO… SPRINT HAS THE BEST PLANS AND THE ONLY CARRIER WITH UNLIMITED DATA THAT MEANS SO MUCH…. SPRINT’S MARKETING TRUMPS TMOBILE ANYDAY OF THE WEEK ESPICALLY WITH THE START OF THE HTC EVO 4G FAMILY AND THE NEW RELEASE OF THE HTC EVO SHIFT 4G THAT CLEARLY COMPARES TO BOTH THE MYTOUCH 4G AND THE G2…. AT MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS IN FEBRUARY OR CTIA IN MARCH SPRINT WILL BE ANNOUNCING THE HTC EVO 2 4G AND TRUST ME THAT DEVICE WHEN LAUNCHED IN JUNE 2011 WILL AGAIN BE THE BEST SMARTPHONE ON THE MARKET…. ACTUALLY TMOBILE CUSTOMERS WOULD BE BETTER OFF IF SPRINT BROUGHT OUT TMOBILE THEN MAYBE THERE PLANS AND NETWORK WILL BECOME BETTER…. THE HTC EVO 4G IS THE GRANDDADDY OF 4G AS WELL AS SPRINT WE STARTED ALL THIS 4G STUFF AND OUR NETWORK IS THE ONLY PROVEN NETWORK AT THIS TIME WITH WIMAX 2 ON THE WAY SOON…. NOTHING TMOBILE, VERIZON, OR AT&T HAS TODAY OR WILL IN THE NEXT 8MONTHS WILL TOP SPRINT OR THE NEW HTC EVO 2 4G…… IT’S GREAT TO BE A PROUD OWNER OF THE CURRENT HTC EVO 4G ON THE BEST NETWORK
I agree with The Wrath..he is dead on.
I am a proud 8yr TMo customer. Why? Certainly not because of coverage on road trips, but because I go to Europe frequently and 8yrs ago it was the only carrier that let me use my phone there, it was also one of the first to offer WAP email through tzones and 8ys ago that was pretty amazing, and the customer service is amazing. I have had great phones…SonyE t610, MDA,SDA, Dash, G1,MTSlide, and the current G2 and not so great phones Vibrante, RZR ,but my needs have always been met maybe not all my wants…I do not see myself switching anytime soon, because I just can’t get past the awesome customer service.
^^^ What he said (but without the caps).
Best phone in the US in 2010 imo was the myTouch 4G, G2, Nexus S.and Nexus One imo (I would take any of those over the Evo/Droids in half a heartbeat and it isn’t even debatable. All of them are close/faster speeds and/or fastest to updates and no encrypted bootloaders like the Droids). All of which available on 2 year deals on T-Mobile. And they have the best prices. I don’t think the problem is phones or price or data speeds, the problem is COVERAGE. If T-Mobile had great nationwide coverage (or at least great coverage in my area), I would jump ship to that carrier fast.
2 months ago the phones may be a valid point (even then they had the N1) but since adding the myTouch 4G, G2 and Nexus S there is zero reason to complain about their Android lineup as it is easily the best in the nation.
I agree with the previous post. T-mobile already has the best phones. The Nexus phones define state of the art, and the G2 is the best phone with a keyboard. T-Mobile’s problem is coverage. It needs more towers. Until it has true nationwide service, T-Mobile should compete on price. At present, it is not cheaper than Verizon for a basic (nonfamily) smartphone plan. That’s a real problem.
I have been with T-mobile when it was first voice stream then powetel and then tmobile, i like the service (although the coverage needs to be expanded) and the pricing is very good, but over all, tmoible has always been at the bottom of the barral when it comes phone selections. Every other company has something better than tmobile, and now Verizon is gettin the Iphone… I would assume that Verizon would be a likely choice since it is the 2nd leader in cell service but, Tmobile Germany already has the iphone why wouldnt apple have selected Tmobile… Over all, tmobile needs to get a better selection of phones and get more coverage areas…
A lot of valid points here, but I left T-Mobile after a decade of service because I got hooked on Android with the G1 and it looked like the start of something great. And it was…for Verizon. After leading the Android wave with the G1, T-Mobile just dropped off the map in regards to phone options. Almost 2 years for a G2, with a couple models of myTouch in between, are not good options. And as much as I liked the Nexus 1, I wasn’t getting off my family plan or spending $1,000 on 2 of them.
Price is great, coverage isn’t as good as VZW but was tolerable, but you cannot give people very limited options with phones and expect them to stay (let alone leave their carrier). If you’re going to push Android, offer lower end and higher end devices from different manufacturers so people can choose what works for them. For me, it just wasn’t worth saving a little each month when Verizon was offering better service and all the Droids and HTC devices to choose from. I couldn’t imagine going back now…
Let’s see how great these so called devices are on tmobile WHEN IT IS TIME FOR UPDATES… HA TMOBILE DOES NOT KNOW THAT WORD… The mytouch 4g is ugly nobody wants that phone… the g2 not bad… Nexus S is made by samsung and is not a tmobile phone it’s a Google phone tmobile won’t be touching or updating that one for sure… TMOBILE NEEDS TO GIVE IT A REST… SPRINT RULES TMOBILE AND THE GRANDDADDY OF 4G THE HTC EVO 4G RULES ALL ANDROID DEVICES ON A PROVEN NETWORK FOR THE LAST 11months not some PROPED UP FAKE 4G….. HASPA PLUS… TMOBILE devices are LOW BUDGET After the mytouch 4g and g2…. BE SERIOUS EVO 4G AND EPIC 4G AS WELL AS THE EVO SHIFT 4G BITCH SLAP THOSE DEVICES ON TMOBILE
1. Keep talking about your customers service. They rock!
2. Put more towers up. If you get friction from local government rally the customers and inform them that you ARE taking action when it comes to expanding coverage.
3. Get 4G everywhere. If you had 4G at my home 20 miles south of Raleigh, NC I would drop my land line.
4. Fire Samsung. I am pissed that I don’t hand Android 2.2 or 2.3 yet on my Vibrant.
Just buy Sprint and drop wimax
i love tmo lol call me stupid but the G2 rooted is the shit! i love my cheap ass bill and that i have been with tmo for a year and 4 months and never had a dropped call and had 3 different phones (for a total price of $150 b.c tmo’s loyalty department is the shit to!)
MORE HIGH END PHONES keeps me with tmo forever so i hope they will provide and with news that they will release 25 or 26 4G devices this year welllllll…. haha you guys seem like verizon or sprint fanboys me i could care less i just need cheap bills im NOT gonna pay out tha ass for a toned down version of motoblur … i would go to sprint if they had sim cards tho!
@ kyle, all carriers have 4g now. the standards were lowered about a month or so ago.
It’s all about status. I work as a Police Officer and 60% of everyone we arrest has a T-Mobile phone. The other 35% has Metro PCS and 5% have one of the three big carriers phones. I think that says quite a bit about where T-Mobile is.
@Ed….your subtle attempt to hide your racist leanings is a perfect example of why cops are disliked. Profile much? Sounds fun. Let me try….based on your comment I can tell that since you are a cop….you must be a fat, inbred, uneducated, ignorant, racist redneck who routinely impregnates his sisters and even though he talks a big game and gets to hide behind a badge and a gun, is really just a small-minded cowardly man who only feels better about himself by trampling on others. How’s that feel?