What could T-Mobile uncap for its next Un-carrier news?
Jeffrey Moore, founder of Wave7 Research, agreed. "T-Mobile has been hinting about 'retiring relics' and has been saying that the cable industry needs to be reformed, so it's likely Layer3 TV," he wrote in an e-mail. "Also, they've been doing some video-related hiring."
Entner, however, argued that building a streaming app on Layer3's traditional linear service will take longer than nine months.
"I don't think that they're going to announce over-the-top television on Wednesday," he said. "It's just not enough time between when they bought it and where we are today."
What, then, about the mobile 5G service T-Mobile said in February will have coverage built out in 30 cities this year?
At the time, CTO Neville Ray said service wouldn't go on sale until compatible phones arrived, but Reticle Research founder Ross Rubin pointed to Verizon's recent launch of Motorola's Z3 with a 5G add-on as reason to think that timetable could accelerate.
"It just does go to show that the chipsets are becoming available," he said. Rubin added that T-Mobile could depart from competitors by offering more specifics (with the caveat that they might depend on government approval of its planned merger with Sprint).
Edit: Here it is. "Team of Experts". Basically no more automated responses when you call Tmobile Customer service.
T-Mobile today said it is expanding its "Team of Experts" customer service model nationwide. The service, which T-Mobile has been testing for two years, assigns blocks of customers in the same area to a group of 30 to 40 dedicated employees at a specific call center.
"Customer service is totally and completely broken, not just in wireless but everywhere in service industries, and the way it is trying to be solved is the wrong way," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said at an Un-carrier event in South Carolina to introduce Team of Experts.
By having dedicated customer service reps, T-Mobile says the program eliminates the painful process of being routed to a random person for every call and bounced around through transfers. Reps are held accountable as well as compensated based on how happy their customer group is with the experience.
T-Mobile President and COO Mike Sievert said the company's model eschews chatbots and the Interactive Voice Response menus that have customers mashing buttons to navigate through the service maze. Sievert said most companies today utilize a model focused on "call deflection," that tries to bat customers away.
"We're getting rid of the old broken customer service model that has frustrated people for decades," Sievert said. "Instead of investing in avoiding customers, we are investing in serving customers."
T-Mobile wants its service model to work on the customer's terms. Customers can contact their team via call, text message, the T-Mobile app and soon through Amazon Echo or Google Home voice commands.
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