Something many T-Mobile users have wanted for a very long time is finally happening: CEO Mike Sievert is stepping down from his role. Many of you have blamed Sievert countless times for the condition of the company nowadays, and a large number of you echo the sentiment: T-Mobile has fallen.
Suffice to say, Mike Sievert’s time in office has been very unpopular with customers, and the upcoming CEO is probably feeling the pressure. But, and I’m sure many of you may be wondering this as well, will Sievert’s departure signal a return to form for the carrier?
Or is T-Mobile doomed to follow the path laid out for it by its competitors, the ones it once so proudly distinguished itself from with the “un-carrier” moniker.
Mike Sievert took a lot of blame recently
Ever since CEO John Legere stepped down and Mike Sievert took over, the carrier has made some very unpopular decisions. First it was the T-Life app being forced onto users, then it was the price hikes, followed by the phasing out of plans that included taxes and fees. There’s no shortage of recent moves under Sievert that have been met with extreme criticism.
T-Mobile customers began leaving the carrier, after months of threatening to do so. Of course, it barely made a dent in the soaring subscriber count of the company, but driving customers away is still pretty nasty business.
Whenever any of these decisions were announced, comments under articles and in online forums would always blast Mike Sievert, while reminiscing about the Legere days. It was almost a given that there would be multiple people saying that the company had gone downhill under Sievert.
Do you blame Mike Sievert for T-Mobile’s controversial decisions.
Yes, completely Yes, partially No, I don’t
Yes, completely
0%
Yes, partially
0%
No, I don’t
0%
On the other hand, T-Mobile has seen insane growth and revenue under its current CEO. Not all of this has been the result of positive changes, of course. For example, T-Mobile employees are concerned that the company is phasing them out as well, to replace them with the T-Life app.
But, as far as business is concerned, Sievert has actually done T-Mobile quite proud. And, bear with me on this, I think that the blame on Sievert might have been a little too much. It’s not just the CEO of a company pulling all the strings, after all.
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Can we expect a return to form now?
But that is all in the past now, October will be Sievert’s last month as CEO, and another era for T-Mobile will come to a close. COO Srini Gopalan will succeed Mike Sievert as CEO of the company, prompting the very important question of whether the “un-carrier” is expected to return.
In my opinion, no. Srini Gopalan has always served the new interests of T-Mobile, according to this quote from January when he was appointed COO.
— T-Mobile COO Srinivasan Gopalan, T-Mobile newsroom, January 2025
That transformation in the Consumer and Business areas very likely refers to the company’s insistence on everyone using the T-Life app. Furthermore, as I mentioned above, the CEO of a company isn’t solely responsible for every decision said company makes.
Srini Gopalan will never be able to revert course for T-Mobile, even if he wanted to. His appointment as CEO was a very carefully planned move, as evidenced by the company’s wording when discussing his new role.
— T-Mobile, September 2025
“Digital-first transformation” doesn’t exactly scream a return to the company’s old un-carrier ways, does it? It’s not like Mike Sievert is leaving the company altogether, either: he’s been appointed to the newly-created role of Vice Chairman, so he still has a lot of pull when it comes to T-Mobile’s future.
All in all, I think it’d be a lot of wishful thinking on our part to assume that a change in the CEO’s office might mean that T-Mobile will revert to how so many people want it to be run. For the average customer, this doesn’t even really mean anything, and it’s just T-Mobile’s excellent nationwide network that’s still keeping people around.
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