T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert (pictured) attempted to put a positive spin on the loss of a contract supplying wholesale services to Dish Network, pointing to opportunities to use freed-up capacity to accelerate its fixed wireless play or for enterprise customers.

Speaking on the company’s Q2 results conference call, the executive brushed-off the impact of MVNO customer Dish Network signing a ten-year deal with AT&T to replace wholesale services currently provided by T-Mobile.

Sievert noted the company had already factored in “rapid decline” of revenue from the customer in its five year plan, but acknowledged this could be faster than expected following Dish Network’s decision to go elsewhere.

“One of the things that we see right away is that when they move off of our network that’s going to open up both management attention, but more importantly capacity,” he noted adding “ultimately when we look at it, we’re not really that displeased”.

He added the company would continue to honour existing obligations to supply Dish Network according to its contract and pledges to authorities as part of the terms of its merger with Sprint.

Ahead
In terms of results, T-Mobile once again hailed its claimed leadership position in the country’s 5G market, increases in LTE capacity, customer additions, gains in the enterprise segment and rapid progress of its integration with Sprint.

“We’re well ahead in our 5G leadership,” Sievert said. “But what I hope is also becoming increasingly clear is that T-Mobile is positioned to maintain our 5G leadership for the duration of the 5G era, thanks to our superior spectrum portfolio, our unprecedented deployment momentum and our synergy-backed model.”

In Q2 the company booked a net profit of $978 million, up from $110 million in the same quarter of 2020. T-Mobile US attributed the huge rise to “continued service revenue growth and synergy realisation”. Revenue was up 10 per cent to $20 billion.