Despite the less than favorable tone of the headlines T-Mobile is receiving in the press today, the mobile operator is optimistic about its future and hopes to aggressively expand its efforts in the mobile realm this year.
Consequently, T-Mobile USA is considering “selling its nonstrategic assets” – e.g., some of its older cellular towers, etc. – in an effort to scrape together the cash needed to make further investments.
According to Thursday’s report in the Wall Street Journal, Rene Obermann, chief executive of parent company Deutsche Telekom AG, says the company “isn’t in a rush to pursue a deal, and that it would consider a sale only if needed to make a large investment.”
There was no talk of the potential value of the deal.
Executives at T-Mobile have largely avoided public comments on Verizon’s recent acquisition of Apple’s iPhone. Instead, T-Mobile USA has heavily ramped up rhetoric boasting the attributes of its own network and connected devices.
Mr. Obermann said he expects T-Mobile USA to return to growth this year and increase its revenue by $3 billion by 2014. He also expects to take $1 billion of costs out of the operation in 2013.
For the remainder of 2011, T-Mobile USA will concentrate heavily on “targeting customer defection.” Obermann says the effort entails plans to reduce the carrier’s rate of turnover to 2% this year and below 1.8% by 2012.
To read the complete Wall Street Journal report, click here.
