Legere laid out a coherent vision of the current state of 5G strategies while on the call, premised on the idea that T-Mobile, once combined with Sprint, has the one true vision for 5G.
“Verizon’s strategy will not work. It’s fake. It was a first-mover play. It would cost $1.5 trillion to do, and they’re kind of dead in the water without a strategy right now. I think the world’s starting to catch on,” Legere told investors.
“Verizon: clueless, no strategy, nowhere to go. AT&T: not clueless, lying, confusing people about 5GE, which is really just 4G Advanced, and a big hole in their template, which is the middle, and where are they going to get the mid-band to lay this up?” he added.
AT&T however didn’t take his criticism particularly seriously. “Oh look, Legere is back. They were last to 5G, but he’s already the expert,” an AT&T spokesperson told The Verge. Verizon didn’t comment on the matter.
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have all started rolling out their 5G networks this year, mostly buying equipment. Deployment is expected to increase significantly over the next year, particularly as carriers begin to step up their 5G rollouts outside of the very limited mmWave deployments.
T-Mobile and Sprint reached a deal to have their merger approved by the Department of Justice earlier today, making it the new No. 3 competitor in the mobile phone business that approaches the size of market leaders Verizon and AT&T.
