T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter said the carrier has several more “Un-carrier” initiatives planned for 2014.
“Some of it will be non-traditional,” Carter said, speaking at an investor conference.
In 2013, T-Mobile’s Un-carrier moves including breaking up two-year contracts and devices subsidies, unveiling an early device upgrade program and offering free international data roaming, elicited business model responses from all the major U.S. carriers. But since its January announcement, promising to pay ETFs for switching customers, T-Mobile has been somewhat quiet on the Un-carrier front.
But Carter still stressed the importance of T-Mobile’s aggressiveness in disrupting the U.S. wireless industry.
On the question of the need for consolidation in the wireless industry, Carter said that without T-Mobile’s “Un-carrier” business model up front, it could be problematic.
Sprint is rumored to be announcing a bid for T-Mobile as early as June and early reports have pegged T-Mobile’s brand and management heading up that combined company.
He said that the innovation that T-Mobile is bringing to marketplace has allowed the carrier to attract prime customers with longer tenure, in turn lowering churn.
He admitted that T-Mobile does need to grow capital for its shareholders but noted the carrier has posted four consecutive quarters of service revenue growth.
With AT&T just announcing its huge DirecTV acquisition plans, the need for bundling services and grabbing compelling content in order to compete inevitably came up.
Carter agreed that bundling different services will be fundamental to the future of the U.S. telecoms industry. He said T-Mobile will be open to it in the future but at the moment its focus is on bundling services for enterprises.
In terms of monetizing content, Carter said from a wireless provider standpoint, it’s important to know what not to do and downplayed creating its own content.
“It’s probably a better strategy to partner,” Carter said.
