T-Mobile’s Un-Carrier 11 Shows It’s Running out of Steam

T-Mobile today announced its “Un-Carrier 11” moves, the latest in a series of moves over the last several years designed to win new customers and increase customer loyalty. Today’s moves were mostly aimed at thanking existing customers, and were another sign that T-Mobile seems to be running out of steam in terms of making meaningful changes to the way the wireless industry works. The comments below may be attributed to Jan Dawson, Chief Analyst, Jackdaw Research. Jan can also be reached at jan@jackdawresearch.com or (408) 744-6244. 

It’s hard to avoid the sense that T-Mobile is running out of really meaningful things to do to attract new customers. Its rate of postpaid phone adds has been falling year on year for a while now (although it’s still adding significantly more than the other carriers). It’s questionable whether stock ownership and free junk food will really make much difference in either retaining existing customers or winning new customers – this certainly isn’t likely to move the needle in terms of boosting phone net adds. The free GoGo is a nice perk, but you do wonder whether a mobile carrier should be aligning itself so closely with an Internet experience that’s generally pretty terrible. These latest Un-Carrier moves feel more like gimmicks than things that are likely to meaningfully improve people’s experience with T-Mobile, let alone attract many new customers.

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