
T-Mobile (News - Alert) President and CEO John Legere in a recent blog pronounces 2017 a win for the company and its customers. He reiterates his 2017 predictions, which he says he “crushed” and “nailed.” And he predicts what he expects to happen in the year ahead.
Legere says T-Mobile in 2018 will disrupt big cable and satellite TV. T-Mobile is going to do so, he says, with the TV solution it announced a few weeks ago and by supporting content streaming over existing networks and upcoming 5G connectivity. He writes that “convergence between wireless and wireline will only accelerate with 5G – wired/fixed anything will go away, and soon everything will be mobile, not just wireless.”
Speaking of 5G, he says this year’s 600MHz spectrum auction was one of the most under-reported stories of 2017. He talks about T-Mobile’s “epic low-band spectrum haul” which “blankets the country.” That, he says, will enable it to strengthen its existing LTE (News - Alert) coverage and build a nationwide 5G network.
“While Dumb and Dumber focus on 5G hotspots that won’t work when you leave your home, we will be the only ones on the fast-track toward a real, mobile nationwide 5G network in 2020 – and have already started deploying 5G ready equipment,” says Legere. “This is such a BFD – we’re leapfrogging the Duopoly like they’re standing still.”
He also predicts that new entrants will continue to move into the wireless domain. Comcast (News - Alert) recently moved into this arena “in their own weak way,” he says, adding that Charter will likely be next at bat.
“I predict we’ll see more than one other major player enter wireless in 2018 through acquisition or an MVNO deal,” he says. “And, I welcome them all!”
Edited by
Maurice Nagle