T-Mobile's Impossible 2015 Predictions

Telecom & Wireless

Published: January 2, 2015 6:41 am

T-Mobile US Inc.’s (NASDAQ: TMUS) CEO John Legere has made a set of impossible predictions for 2015. They show just how unrealistic the Un-Carriers’s goals, and comments about the industry, have become.

Among them:

Over the past 20 months — and eight industry-rocking Un-carrier moves later — we’ve built massive momentum and ignited this revolution. Millions and millions of Americans know T-Mobile is changing wireless for the better.

Or the number might just be in the hundreds of thousands. There is no way to prove the figures either way.

Also:

I love it when people share their network speed tests, and T-Mobile is just blazing fast. But, I love it even more when people tell me where they have coverage gaps vs. the duopoly.

In a recent study by research firm RootMetrics, T-Mobile was bested in most major categories in comparisons among Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ). In both “Speed Index rankings” and “Data Performance rankings” the Un-carrier finished third. RootMetrics pointed out that T-Mobile’s ratings improved, but not enough to move ahead of Verizon or AT&T.

Another set of comments by Legere:

AT&T will find new ways to cause their customers pain.

Sprint will continue throwing out campaigns, offers and promotions.

Verizon will keep trying to baffle American wireless customers with BS promos.

Both self-serving and impossible to forecast in any meaningful way.

According to Legere:

I’ll be in conversation with nearly 2M Twitter followers (at the very least 1.5M…) by the end of the year.

Or maybe that number will only be a million, or perhaps less.

A number of things show that confidence in the future of T-Mobile is shaky. Not the least of them is the verdict of Wall Street. Over the past year, shares of T-Mobile are down 19%. Shares of Verizon are down only 5%, about the same as shares of AT&T. The S&P 500 has risen 12% over the same period.

It is hard to find much to buttress Legere’s predictions.

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