T-Mobiles
experience with MetroPCS promising for Sprint
deal, says
ex-Metro
executive
By Monica Alleven, Fierce Wireless, September 17, 2018
The former head of network operations at MetroPCS, the prepaid company that was acquired by
T-Mobile
in 2013, says he
has all the confidence in the world that the combination of Sprint and
T-Mobile
will be successful based on his experience with the MetroPCS deal.
Ed Chao was senior vice president of Technology, Strategy and Development at
T-Mobile
for a year before moving on to
other endeavors. Before that, he was senior vice president of Corporate Engineering & Network Operations at MetroPCS. Prior to that gig, he was in the vendor space at Lucent Technologies Bell Labs and Nortel Networks.
Chao, who spoke with FierceWirelessTech on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress Americas 2018 (MWCA18), is now the CEO of PoLTE, a startup that is
pitching its Cloud Location over Cellular
(C-LoC)
technology as the most accurate cellular-based location technology available today.
Chao addressed at a high level his experience with the
T-Mobile
team, which is today largely the same as it was
five years ago. It was an amazing experience for us, Chao said. Strategically, we were a great fit.
T-Mobile
CEO John Legere created a culture that was very aligned with where we were heading in the future, and he sees similarities with how
T-Mobile
plans to
disrupt the TV space with its acquisition of Layer3. Legere has said
T-Mobile
acquired Layer3 to build TV for the mobile age (PDF) and the 5G era, and to take the fight to Big Cable and Satellite
TV on behalf of customers everywhere.
Chao said when the MetroPCS deal was in play, Legere went out and talked to people in the sales channel, which
is key when youre conducting a transaction of this nature. People are worried about their jobsand the whole transaction was a chance to take Metro and
T-Mobile
to a whole new level.
I think hes got the capability to do it again. Its just what he does and its now baked into the DNA of the company, he said. The
idea is to
out-hustle
the competition, which Legere calls Dumb and Dumber when referring to Verizon and AT&T. As a
no-contract
operator, MetroPCS was
nimble and able to pivot and change rapidly because it didnt have to worry about
two-year
contracts.
Just from my own personal experience, theyve got a track record that is definitely a positive.
Chaos comments are timely given that not all mergers result in a successful combination of culturesSprints acquisition of Nextel
Communications is one exampleand
T-Mobile executives
have said (PDF) the same process used in the MetroPCS acquisition would be used here.
The National Wireless Independent Dealer Association (NWIDA) told FierceWirelessTech that it is not opposed to the proposed merger, but it wants to hear from
whomever ends up with the prepaid brands that they are going to maintain the independent dealer channel. The fear is that the combined entity will look to reduce costs and slash dealers because a Boost store happens to be located across the street
from a MetroPCS store.