You join a T-Mobile earnings call for the financial news, but you stay for execs dog-cussing their competitors. That's just the way it is, usually. But today TMo CEO John Legere went full Dad Mode on AT&T when it comes to the prospect of bundling home broadband via 5G with its fledgling streaming video product, which just launched in limited form this month.
First, here's T-Mobile President and COO Mike Sievert:
Listen, bundling, it depends on what you mean by bundling. If you what you mean by bundling is that we'll give you a decent deal on the core product only if you buy a bunch of other stuff you don't really want, no. We're not going to do bundling. That's the game plan that AT&T pursues. You can only get a fair deal a lot of the time depending on how they pulse their promotions on their core wireless product when you take a bunch of crap from satellite TV that you don't want.Now, on the other hand, if you're asking, are we going to plunge ourselves into home broadband with a disruptive offer? In the new T-Mobile, absolutely. We are. Are we going to augment that with TV offers that range from full line cable TV replacement to more disruptive lower price offers? Absolutely, we're going to do that. Are we going to offer those in concert with wireless and create value propositions that are attractive to consumers? Yes, that's what the UnCarrier does.So, it all comes down to what do you mean by bundling.
And then, it happened. CEO John Legere — who certainly isn't shy during these calls (or any other time, really) — did it.
Well, he was confused. He was referring to what AT&T does, which is bungling.
Bundling. Bungling. Get it?
Anyway. In other news, T-Mobile said to expect the first 5G-capable phones on its network in the second half of the year.
