With T-Mobile’s MetroPCS deal now in the books, the company’s CEO is continuing his press rounds today by clearing the air on how the two companies will run side by side.
“Don’t be confused,” Legere told AllThingsD. “We’re not running two companies. We are clearly going to be one integrated company that uses two brands to go to market.”
So let’s jump right in and T-Mobile says they will begin selling phones compatible with its network at MetroPCS stores later this quarter. The goal is to have only T-Mobile compatible devices in MetroPCS stores by end of this year according to T-Mobile’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert. T-Mobile is looking to avoid Sprint’s disastrous move running two networks side-by-side as they attempted after taking over Nextel. Still, the process won’t be quick nor easy and T-Mobile still expects it to take a “couple of years” to make the transition. “The economics suggest it will take some time,” Sievert said.
In fact, T-Mobile is emphasizing that changes for customers of either company that are frontline facing, like rate plan changes aren’t likely to start anytime soon. “What’s changing,” Sievert said, “is the resources we have to execute on that strategy. It’s so critical.”
As for MetroPCS customers hoping that the T-Mobile merger brings them the iPhone, that may or may not happen in the near future. Legere was pretty clear that the company has started dialogue with Apple to make it happen, but said “it’s not imminent; I think that’s safe to say.”
“The answer to that is not ‘No,’” Legere said, but added, “It’s not imminent; I think that’s safe to say.”
The end game for T-Mobile is to work toward transitioning as many customers as possible over to MetroPCS and calling it a “customer migration, not network integration.”
T-Mobile will introduce MetroPCS handsets that run on the T-Mobile’s network as well in the hopes of bringing the MetroPCS brand to new cities. Legere said the company is working on a “double-digit” list of cities, but wouldn’t specify a timeframe for when those markets would launch.
“We’re deciding those cities this week,” Legere said. “We’re going to move fast and big.”
Finally, Legere said that T-Mobile is already on track for its goal of shifting the loss of losing postpaid subscriber drops to gaining some customers this year and being full positive in 2014.