Everyone loves a challenger, and T-Mobile sure seems to be enjoying that role, as much here in Minnesota as anywhere. Yesterday, Steve Borsch and I had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Adams,
the carrier’s new VP/GM for Minnesota and Wisconsin (see June 2 news), and have a wide-ranging chat with about T-Mobile’s plans and their latest 4G offerings. Tim has impressive executive experience in tech and retail, and was virtually bubbling with excitement about new T-Mobile’s initiatives in Minnesota and new offerings from the company to keep up, or ahead, of the big guys.
You might think the most important thing happening in T-Mobile’s world would be AT&T’s impending (but not yet approved) deal to acquire the company, and that was of course the first question we brought up with Adams. Naturally, he could provide no more information than what’s been publicly announced. But he had much more to talk about. “We’re not slowing down. We’re not waiting for the acquisition,” he said. “Minnesota is a very important market for us, and we continue investing heavily and adding staff here.” Across the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, T-Mobile has invested more than $43 million in continuous network upgrades since the start of 2010, according to Adams, and now has more than 350 cell sites operating 4G service in the Twin Cities area.
Which brings me to the most exciting news that T-Mobile was announcing yesterday: T-Mobile’s Faster 4G Network Now Available in the Twin Cities — America’s Largest 4G Network is now twice as fast in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Its super-fast “HSPA+42” (as in Mbps) network is now available “in the majority of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area,” the company’s release said, and customers will experience “speeds twice as fast as T-Mobile’s current 4G network on compatible devices.” Before you start hyper-ventilating, it also states this: the recently introduced Rocket® 3.0 laptop stick, its first HSPA+ 42-capable device, offers “average download speeds on our HSPA+ 42 network approaching 10Mbps, with peak speeds of 27 Mbps.” Okay, it”s not 42 — but, trust me, I’ll take it!
[By the way, I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since sometime in the early to mid-’90s, counting the two predecessor companies they acquired, Aerial and VoiceStream. Then, soon after, I also became a customer of AT&T Wireless, well prior to the Cingular merger. And I continue to be a dual-carrier-household guy. Net-net: can’t wait to see how well I’m treated after the merger — I’ve earned it, haha.]Back to T-Mobile in Minnesota. I was impressed with these stats the company shared with us:
• T-Mobile has more than 825,000 customers in the Twin Cities area.
• Its sales organization in Minnesota numbers more than 380 national retail locations, corporate and partner-owned stores, as well as third-party retailers.
• The company has 540 employees in the Minnesota-Wisconsin region — in retail stores, enterprise sales, mid-market/B2B, small business/B2B, operations, finance, engineering, local marketing, human resources, and other functions.
• Data traffic on T-Mobile’s network in the Twin Cities area has increased about 330% in the past year. (Wow!)
Tim Adams was joined by Scott Goldberg, a T-Mobile senior communications manager based in Chicago, and a great guy. Steve Borsch and I enjoyed bringing both him and Tim up-to-speed with the breath and scope of the Twin Cities tech and mobile community. In particular, I had some fun chatting with Goldberg about Chicago’s longtime tech-gossip guru, Ron May, whom he knows well (and whom I’ve met). I couldn’t help but bring up the recent May Report email newsletter that mentioned 160 people showed up for Chicago’s latest BarCamp. Big whoop — I pointed out, with much glee, that we had *1200* at our recent BarCamp event! That would be MinneBar 2011. [Note to Luke, Ben, and crew: they were taking notes feverishly.]
Two other recent news announcements from T-Mobile really impressed me. It’s clear they’re a serious competitor for your wireless business. Announcements like this prove it. These product offerings are national in scope, not just for the Twin Cities. The first is some really consumer-friendly news, while the other new product announcement will surely get the attention of small businesses:
May 23: T-Mobile Offers Monthly 4G Plans Featuring Unlimited Talk, Text, and Web With *No Annual Contract*
June 30: T-Mobile Bolsters Options For Small Businesses with Flexible, Multi-Line Shared Pooling Plans
We wish T-Mobile, Tim Adams, and his entire Minnesota-Wisconsin crew all the best as they move forward!
UPDATE (7/15/11): One thing I forgot to touch on was T-Mobile’s Customer Care, which gets high ratings in surveys and really does set them apart from the bigger players. I can attest that is the case, after my many years as a customer, and being able to compare it to AT&T’s (and actually even Verizon’s, too, when I once attempted to become a customer). But what struck me was a line that Tim Adams used, that T-Mobile people are all about “right-fitting the customer.” What that means is they don’t try to push stuff on you that isn’t right for you. They want to ensure that each customer gets just what they need, and only what they need. They even hold free smartphone classes in certain of their stores, to help people learn how to use them, or even if a smartphone is right for them. These classes are extremely popular, Adams said, “packed.”
One other thing I wanted to add was a link to some very interesting stats about consumer 4G adoption from recent surveys by Nielsen and Retrevo.