One year ago, John Legere laid out his predictions on what would happen in the wireless industry in 2015. And now that he’s reviewed those guesses, he’s ready to make some predictions on what 2016 might bring to mobile.
Unsurprisingly, the T-Mobile CEO expects T-Mobile to do pretty well in the new year. Legere predicts that T-Mo will continue to eliminate customer pain points in the wireless industry, attract US businesses to adopt T-Mobile, and that Magenta’s LTE network will continue to grow. Focusing specifically on the upcoming 600MHz auction, which Legere says will be one of the most important spectrum auctions in recent US history, the CEO expects T-Mobile “will walk away a winner.”
Legere also has a prediction for Binge On, which has been the subject of some controversy lately. He expects that while AT&T and Verizon “will tax and toll every bite of every video you stream,” T-Mobile will expand Binge On’s free streaming to include at least another 24 services.
The T-Mo CEO went on to target Verizon specifically, saying that Big Red “will get more and more panicked” and that they’ll launch another couple of ad campaigns targeted at T-Mo. Legere also predicts that they’ll copy another Un-carrier move, following their new ETF payoff promo that Legere feels is a copy of Carrier Freedom.
Another wireless prediction is that there will be more merger and acquisition rumors, and Legere says that we’ll probably see Dish in some and T-Mobile’s name in others. He doesn’t hint that anything’s in the works, though, saying that T-Mo “will continue to compete and win on our own and we’ll see how the market landscape changes over time.”
Rounding out his predictions, Legere says that things like mobile payments the Internet of Things, and VR and AR will finally gain real momentum in 2016. The CEO also suggests that social media networks — including his favorite, Periscope — will continue to grow, drones will become more useful, he’ll battle presidential candidates other than Donald Trump, Ronda Rousey will win back the UFC title, and Batman will beat Superman in the upcoming Batman v Superman movie. But should that surprise you coming from a guy with a magenta Batman as his Twitter cover photo?
So there are John Legere’s predictions for 2016. Mark ‘em down and in a year’s time, we’ll see how he did. Some of them seem like pretty safe bets, like more T-Mobile acquisition rumors and improved LTE coverage. We’re likely to see more Un-carrier moves, because that’s kind of what T-Mobile is all about these days. And we know that Magenta plans to go hard in the upcoming 600MHz auction, so don’t be surprised if it does indeed come away a big winner. That’s good news for T-Mo’s network, as the 600MHz spectrum could help to further improve T-Mobile’s LTE reach.
Do you have any 2016 predictions, T-Mobile-related or not, that you’d like to lay out before 2015 comes to an end?
Source: T-Mobile