Beneath the clothes is a fierce competitor who still runs marathons

Beneath the clothes is a fierce competitor who still runs marathons (including this year’s in Boston) and seems to enjoy nothing more than denouncing AT&T and Verizon, which he refers to as a “pseudo duopoly.” (He doesn’t think Sprint is even worth mentioning, though there are new reports Sprint and Dish Network may bid on T-Mobile next year. )When he joined T-Mobile, “We had a limited time window and a sense of urgency,” Legere said.“We were losing over 2 million customers a year. So we moved as fast as we humanly could. My board wondered if we were doing too much. But the fact is, speed has become one of our biggest weapons. The current industry is arrogant, stupid and slow, which gives companies like T-Mobile a real competitive advantage.”Although the task of reviving T-Mobile seemed daunting, “I felt that as a challenger,Period Cup we might just have a pretty amazing opportunity in front of us,” he continued. “We could take a completely different approach to this business, we could create real customer value by driving serious change in this ridiculous and broken industry.”That meant upending long-entrenched industry practices, addressing what Legere calls customer “pain points.”

T-Mobile got rid of the much-reviled two-year contract and let customers pay for their phones and service separately. If they don’t like their T-Mobile service, they can change carriers any time once their phones are paid for.T-Mobile cut prices, with free unlimited overseas roaming. Armed with a war chest and additional spectrum that it got as a breakup fee after the AT&T deal failed, T-Mobile expanded and modernized its 4G LTE network, now available to 205 million people.A few weeks ago T-Mobile roiled the industry again when it offered free unlimited data for tablets.Representatives of AT&T and Verizon declined to comment.T-Mobile branded and marketed all this as the “Un-carrier,” rolling out new versions of its plans — already five and counting — even as competitors have struggled to match the previous one.“Surprise is an effective competitive tactic,” Legere said.wheel aligner “When you catch the competition by surprise, keep punching and don’t let them up. When you have momentum, keep building it by delivering unexpected offers in rapid succession. Our team is loving it. They are breaking the boundaries and getting to use all their creativity. That’s pretty cool.”Another group loving it is antitrust regulators. T-Mobile’s success has enabled the Justice Department’s antitrust division to take a rare victory lap, since the company’s consumer-friendly moves are exactly what regulators hoped for when they sued to block the merger with AT&T.“This really demonstrates that competition can work,” said William J.contemporary lamps Baer, the division’s head.Whether T-Mobile can sustain the momentum remains to be seen, and Legere concedes the battle is far from over.“We run scared every day,” he said. “We know we have a lot to do yet. But look at the choices customers are making. In the last two quarters, since we launched Un-carrier, T-Mobile has grown faster than everyone else, and we have added more postpaid customers than Sprint, AT&T and Verizon combined. I really think that says it all.”