T-Mobile USA’s comeback from its 2011 abyss continues as the carrier’s plan to reinvigorate the industry’s competitive landscape is in full flight. Those efforts have also spilled over to its enterprise offerings, where the carrier is looking to build on the foundation laid in 2012.
T-Mobile USA rolled out its plans for the enterprise market at last year’s CTIA event in New Orleans, where the carrier found itself under represented. That conclusion was drawn from the fact that the carrier said it had about 12% of the domestic wireless business, but just 5% of the enterprise ¬market.
Helping to propel the continued focus is the support T-Mobile USA received late last year from parent company Deutsche Telekom. Following a failed attempt to unload T-Mobile USA onto AT&T in 2011 for $39 billion, DT decided to re-double its efforts in gaining market share in the competitive domestic space.
The carrier came out in early 2012 with a network enhancement plan that included the rollout of LTE services, a move that was bolstered by the spectrum assets it gained from AT&T following the collapse of that deal. DT then looked to further infuse T-Mobile USA’s spectrum portfolio late last year with a proposed deal to acquire MetroPCS that will see DT trim its ownership of the T-Mobile USA to 74%.
Frank Sickinger, head of business sales at T-Mobile USA, reiterated the importance of the MetroPCS deal in providing the carrier with the spectrum assets needed to bolster its LTE plans. Those plans should result in the carrier being able to offer up to 40 megahertz of spectrum to support LTE, which Sickinger noted was becoming a more common request from enterprise customers looking for higher-speed data services.
DT noted last December that it plans to spend $4.7 billion in 2013 and $3 billion per year in 2014 and 2015 on capital expenditures for its U.S. operations. DT noted that $4 billion of its 2013 investments would be focused on the LTE network plans, echoing previous comments from T-Mobile USA regarding the cost of its network initiative, and that total investments would be a significant improvement compared with the $2.7 billion average spent on T-Mobile USA capex over the past three years.
That support from DT has also allowed the carrier to bring a more international presence to its enterprise offerings. Last summer T-Mobile USA rolled out its Open Europe plan that provides enterprises with 500 megabytes of data access across 29 European countries for $50 per line, per month.
Device support leads to new MDM
T-Mobile USA’s enterprise focus is also set to receive a shot in the arm this year as the carrier has said it will begin offering Apple products, which have been a hit with enterprise users. Sickinger did note that even without being able to officially offer Apple products, the carrier has seen dramatic uptake in Android-powered devices into the enterprise as well as increased interest in small-screened Android-powered tablets.
“I have to give our sales people credit for being able to grow our business in 2012 without being able to offer Apple,” Sickinger said.
Beyond the big two operating systems, Sickinger said the carrier has begun to see some traction with Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform as well as at least some initial enthusiasm from the latest BlackBerry offering. That enthusiasm could see T-Mobile USA become one of the first domestic carriers to launch BlackBerry’s latest Z10 device, which is expected to hit the market by mid-March. Solavei, which is a mobile virtual network partner for T-Mobile USA, began offering the Z10 this week at an unsubsidized price of $999.
The increased availability of compelling devices is also playing into the bring-your-own-device phenomenon that is sweeping the enterprise space. Sickinger explained that the carrier is indeed seeing enterprise customers requesting support for such moves, including security packages that will allow companies to cater to employee needs.
“We have definitely seen a strong uptick in requests from our customers to support BYOD, as well as the challenges that come with such policies,” Sickinger said, adding that the carrier continues to work with Good on security support for the enterprise market.
In connection with that support, T-Mobile USA also announced a hosted mobile device management service designed to ease the implementation and security issues that come with mobile devices running different platforms. The offering, dubbed Mobile Iron MDM, is being provided in partnership with Mission Critical Wireless and is available through T-Mobile USA’s business-to-business channels.
As for T-Mobile USA’s plan to hire 1,000 new sales associates specifically targeting the enterprise space, Sickinger noted the carrier was on the path to meeting that goal, though it would likely take several years before all the hires were in place.
“We have hired a couple hundred to this point,” Sickinger said.
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