Home
News
You are here

T-Mobile has lost its focus on the one thing that is important

From 2012-2020 T-Mobile was laser-focused on just one thing, but has since lost that focus.

Alan Friedman

Published: Oct 11, 2026, 9:12 PM

T-Mobile

Add us as a preferred source on Google Search

T-Mobile loses its focus on the most important thing | Image by T-Mobile

What is the plan with T-Mobile? Who is CEO Srini Gopalan trying to appeal to? When former CEO John Legere masterfully took the carrier from dead last among the Big 4 US wireless firms and made it the most innovative and fastest-growing wireless provider in the US, he had a strategy: Attack your competitors and pick on their weak spots while putting your own customers first.

Those who followed T-Mobile closely back then could see Legere's brilliant strategy paying off with every quarterly report, every commercial, even with every hilarious holiday video, and every headline-making antic that Legere pulled off.

T-Mobile's customer service started to decline when Mike Sievert took over as CEO

The malaise that has set in at T-Mobile started during the Mike Sievert reign, and it has continued with Gopalan, who took over as CEO from Sievert on November 1, 2025. It has been a year and Gopalan's moves beg the question, just exactly who is T-Mobile looking to impress?

What has T-Mobile lost its focus on the most?

9 Votes

It surely isn't Wall Street that the carrier is trying to show off to. Since Gopalan became CEO nearly a year ago, T-Mobile's shares have declined 27%. During the same period, Verizon's shares have risen 5%, while AT&T's stock dropped 10%.

T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan. | Image by T-Mobile

You might think that T-Mobile had been missing earnings estimates from Wall Street analysts based on that huge year-over-year decline in the stock price. But for the first two quarters of 2026, T-Mobile beat earnings estimates although revenue for each quarter came in slightly below estimates

Gopalan hasn't done anything for T-Mobile subscribers except force 8 million customers to leave their 3G and 4G plans and sign up for a more expensive 5G plan that costs $6 more per month for each voice line and $3-$6 more per month for connected devices and home internet.

T-Mobile forces customers off of grandfathered lines to pay more for 5G

Customers are still upset about being forced to use the T-Life app for every purchase. The digital-first transition means stores are closing and CEO Gopalan said recently that he expects T-Mobile to operate fewer stores while it moves to building larger "Experience stores."

During the carrier's first-quarter earnings call, the executive said, "Over time, our mix shift will lead to fewer doors but more meaningful customer experiences." This is completely different from the strategy under Legere, which was to make T-Mobile accessible everywhere the competition was.

Fixing customer pain points was a major goal of the Legere administration. Under Sievert and Gopalan, the most important goal appears to be squeezing out the most money from consumers.

The pressure to perform has hurt T-Mobile's reps, who are forced to meet a list of certain monthly performance targets called metrics. This even includes forcing reps to get a certain number of customers to apply for the Capital One T-Mobile Visa credit card.

To make sure that they keep their jobs and meet their metrics each month, some reps have added items to a T-Mobile customer's invoice without their knowledge. Items like device insurance, cases, battery chargers, screen protectors, wireless earbuds, new lines, and other accessories were stealthily added to a purchase to hike the bill, and to keep the rep from failing to meet his goals and getting fired.

While T-Mobile reps did have metrics to meet under Legere, reports indicate that they changed under Mike Sievert, increasing the pressure on T-Mobile's reps. It also should be noted that every current and former T-Mobile rep I've spoken with admitted to missing Legere and stating that things were better when he was CEO.

"Cramming" and "Slamming" become part of the T-Mobile vocabulary

Now, to be fair, T-Mobile isn't the only carrier among the Big 3 that has issues with reps adding items to customer invoices without the customer knowing, a practice known as "Cramming" or "Slamming." If Legere were still CEO, my feeling is that he might have called out the carriers and announced an Un-carrier move to reduce the pressure on reps that gives them the impetus to "cram and slam" at the expense of the carrier's customers.

As if all of this wasn't confusing enough for T-Mobile customers, the company's parent and majority stockholder, Deutsche Telekom (DT), said earlier this year that it would like to combine with T-Mobile in what would be the largest public Merger & Acquisition (M&A) deal in history.

A combined Deutsche Telekom-T-Mobile would be the highest-valued wireless carrier worldwide

At the time the deal was first mentioned in the media six months ago, a combined DT-T-Mobile would have topped China Mobile to become the highest-valued wireless carrier in the world based on market capitalization.

DT wanted to do such a deal as a way to reduce the valuation gap between Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile. DT currently trades at 13.83 times earnings (on a trailing basis). T-Mobile's trailing P/E ratio is 15.58. DT believes that its shares are undervalued, and combining with T-Mobile could unlock that value.

T-Mobile is no longer focused on doing things for the customer. Don't be surprised if it gets rid of the very popular T-Mobile Tuesdays reward program. At the very least, I can't see Gopalan continuing to give away the paid MLB app for free (valued at $149.99). Current management has made it clear that consumers are no longer the audience they are trying to impress.

I'm not going to lie. I don't think T-Mobile has any idea who it is looking to impress. That is apparent, as the carrier has taken a proven consumer-first strategy and is in the process of dismantling it for no reason at all. Only the stock price can see through this bs and you can see which way the stock has been going for the past 18 months.

Check out these articles right now:

$10 /mo

$35

$25 off (71%)

Mint Mobile is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a special offer on its six-month subscription plans. For a limited time, you can get your preferred tier (6GB, 17GB, 23GB or unlimited) for just $10/mo. That saves you between 50% and 71% on the carrier's mobile plans, making it way easier to recommend.

Buy at Mint Mobile

View Full Bio

Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

Read the latest from Alan Friedman