T-Mobile’s New CEO Srini Gopalan and What to Expect Next

Full Transcript

Don Kellogg 0m10s

Hello, and welcome to the two hundred and sixty third episode of the week with Roger, a conversation between analysts about all things telecom, media, and technology by Recon Analytics. I'm Don Kellogg, and with me as always is Roger Entner. How are doing, Roger?

Roger Entner 0m22s

Hey. I'm okay.

Don Kellogg 0m24s

So, Roger, uh, some big news recently. It looks like we have a new CEO at T Mobile.

Roger Entner 0m28s

Yeah, Srini Gopalan is taking over November 1. We called more like January 1, so it's a little bit early. Srini is a highly skilled, terrific executive. He has been a long time board member of T Mobile USA. He has run Deutsche Telekom in Germany and he has run it in Europe.

Roger Entner 0m53s

And he is really an excellent executive. You know, when you get a new executive, you always get a breath of fresh air into the organisation. And we saw that already last month when Andre Almeida joined T Mobile USA, with who Srini worked a lot in Europe, right? And so, you know, we've done this before and numbers and facts don't make decisions, people make decisions. And we will have a new CEO, so the character of essentially by T Mobile will change slightly.

Roger Entner 1m28s

You know, T Mobile pre John Ledger was different and very different to the T Mobile of the John Ledger era. And again, the T Mobile under Mike Siebert was different to John Ledger. And here I would expect a different personality to come shining through.

Don Kellogg 1m47s

Well, could you talk a little bit about kind of what Srini has done over at DT as a point of reference? Just give folks a little bit of color commentary on kind of his background and what he brings to T Mobile as the new CEO.

Roger Entner 2m0s

Srini has had executive experience in Barty in India, Vodafone in The UK, and then with Deutsche Telekom, both Germany and Europe. I think what should the Un carrier fans give a lot of hope is, under his tenure, the slogan was we're turning customers into fans, which I think somebody in Seattle can certainly agree with. He also was instrumental in its fibre push in Germany, and this is something that T Mobile here in The US is doing. Also, I would say he is a terrific process optimizer. He is an outstanding technological visionary and knows how to implement it.

Roger Entner 2m48s

And so I think he's the right man at the right time for T Mobile. You know, when look at the three phases of T Mobile, John Ledger, I view as like the Steve Jobs of T Mobile. I was warned I shouldn't say that because it would go to John's already big head, but I think he rightfully has a big head because what he did with T Mobile was truly remarkable. Then, you know, Mike, I view him as like the Tim Cook who took the disruption of John Ledger and really, really moved it forward. Right?

Roger Entner 3m23s

The company ran into money. The company continued to execute extremely well. When I look at it today, Timova urban markets around 50% market share. Right now they're making their numbers in small market rural areas. That has a limited lifetime, right?

Roger Entner 3m41s

They're going to run out of markets where they have 20% and where they can raise this to 30%, 40%, 50%. And in comes Srini, who I think is uniquely positioned to make the company even more efficient.

Don Kellogg 3m55s

Well, think the fiber build out history is important too, as T Mobile is getting more serious about fiber, having somebody that's done that at scale before is also helpful.

Roger Entner 4m4s

Yeah. Before we turn to fiber, I thought it was very encouraging that in his TV tour together with Mike on Monday, you know, the commitment to the Un carrier spirit was made, even though in all honesty, you know, the carrier spirit has weakened. You know, when I look at how often John Ledger disrupted the industry and how often Mike disrupted the industry, there's a clear decline, right? At the same time, the financial performance is clearly going up. If we look at fibre, yeah, without a doubt.

Roger Entner 4m38s

But one of the problems here with T Mobile's fibre strategy is the dictum that they only want to buy pure fibre plays and they want to be first to fibre. That is slim picking, right? There are not that many around. We just have the results for all 48 states for BEAT. So things are coming.

Roger Entner 5m0s

It's going to be very, very interesting. I think that I said before here, I'm working on in-depth reports of the 500 largest privately held ISPs in this country, with the structure, with all of this. All the big ones have copper attached to it. That's why, you know, it was a headline that T Mobile bought US Internet, which is a very ambitious name for a very, very small fiber provider in suburban Minneapolis. But that's the picking, right?

Roger Entner 5m33s

So if you want to have an ambitious fiber strategy, you're two years too late. If you are serious and with fiber, you inevitably will run into the challenges that there's copper attached to it, which is cooties, right? Or you're not first.

Don Kellogg 5m49s

Well, mean, as you say, different people make different decisions. Right? So Yeah. We'll see kinda how that that hashes out. But I agree with you that that, you know, if T Mobile stays with the pure play fiber purity test, there's not a lot out there, right?

Roger Entner 6m1s

Yeah, no, I, you know, and Sweeney is excellent. I met with him a few weeks ago when I was in Seattle. I've met Sweeney over the years. Sweeney reminded me that we met like first time, like fifteen years ago. So, you know, I think he will be a fixture and he will make his presence known.

Roger Entner 6m20s

You know, of all the executives that I know and see within Deutsche Telekom as the overall organization, he's one of the best, if not the best, credit where credit is due.

Don Kellogg 6m32s

So we'll see when the next Un carrier move is. I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

Roger Entner 6m38s

I'm too. I'm looking forward to the next Un carrier move as well.

Don Kellogg 6m41s

It's been a while.

Roger Entner 6m43s

It has been a while. Unless you view satellite as an non carrier move, if you're generous, you would include that. They launched it. It's disruptive. The competition right now can't follow suit.

Roger Entner 6m57s

We'll see if when Verizon and AT&T can do something like that with AST, you know. AST is talking about December. I'm looking forward to it. But they're dependent on Elon Musk launching the satellites. The very guy who provides Starlink to T Mobile.

Roger Entner 7m15s

So it's interesting bedfellows, let's say it like that. Right?

Don Kellogg 7m19s

Right. Anything else folks should know about Srini or thoughts, hopes?

Roger Entner 7m24s

I always say actions are louder than words. You know, I think this is a good introduction. I hope Srini will come and we will be able to talk with him on the show and that would be fantastic. But, you know, give him a little bit time, put his stamp on. You know, he started to do that.

Roger Entner 7m41s

Yeah. I think the most recent reorganization was Sriniv starting to put together his team. And, you know, give the man some time. We'll see what happens. All right.

Don Kellogg 7m51s

Well, we'll keep an eye on it. Thanks, Roger.

Roger Entner 7m53s

Thank you. Bye bye.