T-Mobile has made some bold moves, and their CEO John Legere has made some even bolder statements. Most of Leger’s antics, and his over the top strategically good moves have all been aimed at one thing, the T-Mobile customer, oh yeah, and the new T-Mobile customer.
After taking over as CEO, Legere started pointing out some of the atrocity’s that were the way of the wireless industry. Subsidized phones, two year contracts and early termination fees (at least for other carriers) were things that Legere quickly went to work fixing, all the while, branding T-Mobile as the Un-Carrier.
T-Mobile’s financing got rid of the subsidized phones. Two year contracts were replaced by the Jump Program, and a promotion T-Mobile did at the beginning of the year, offering to pay new customers early termination fees from other carriers, to switch to T-Mobile.
So far most of these efforts have worked. T-Mobile continues to grow it’s customer base and other wireless providers have responded by copying some of T-Mobile’s more brazen moves.
But arguably, some feel that these new tactics come with a price, and today that price is employer pricing.
Until now, all carriers had major corporate clients that offered discounts to employees who used their service. These discounts ranged from 5% to sometimes 30% off of monthly bills just for working for the right company. Legere insists that eliminating these employer pricing programs isn’t about cutting corners to save money where T-Mobile has lost some, but rather to create a more level playing field.
Legere took to Twitter to basically say that it wasn’t fair that some customers got discounts because of their employers while others did not.
Even over a decade ago when Legere was CEO of Global Crossing, he has tried to support small business in any way he can. Even as the CEO of T-Mobile USA, a part of huge telecommunications conglomerate Deutsche Telekom, Legere operates with the autonomy of a small business owner. Legere doesn’t think it’s fair that the entrepreneurs, app developers and small business owners of the world have to pay full price, while those who work at Bank of America do not. So with that in mind, employer pricing ends this month, with it completely going away April 25th.
As a consolation T-Mobile will give customers already on the plan a $25 reward card every time they activate a new line.
