T-Mobile's CEO on Winning Market Share by Trash-Talking Rivals

When he joined T-Mobile, in September 2012, the author writes, the most important thing he recognized wasn't specific to T-Mobile; it was true for the wireless industry in general: People hated it. He saw that the best way to succeed in this industry was to do things as differently as possible from the existing carriers. T-Mobile got rid of long-term contracts and replaced them with a transparent pricing model, made it easier to upgrade to a new smartphone, and eliminated charges for global roaming. Legere also began criticizing rivals Verizon and AT&T Wireless, which he dubbed "dumb and dumber," at press events and on Twitter. The result: T-Mobile has grown subscribers from 33 million when Legere came on board to nearly 69 million at the end of the third quarter in 2016.