T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile: We’re ‘very much looking at the future’

T-mobile and Virgin are keen to make the case for their business models in Ireland, where they have already launched a number of new services and have already signed deals with new carriers.
Speaking on the sidelines of the T-MoEurope event in Dublin, T-Mobiles chief executive David Karp said T-SIM, which he described as a ‘digital SIM card’, is ‘the future of mobile’ and is ‘not a traditional phone, it’s a digital SIM card’.
“The future is about mobility,” he said.
“We are in a very different space now.
There is an emerging market, there is a mobile ecosystem and there is an ecosystem around mobile, but we don’t know what the future is going to look like.”
He added: “We are going to be looking to see how we fit into the ecosystem, how we build out a network, how do we take advantage of new technologies, how are we able to make these new services more affordable for customers and deliver them in a way that makes sense.”
The move to build out their own networks comes at a time when T-Mobiles customers are feeling the pinch of roaming charges on their bills.
The carrier recently reduced the number of roaming minutes available to customers on prepaid plans from five to two, and has also introduced a range of other changes to make it easier for customers to buy mobile phone accessories.
Karp said the new service is being built ‘in-house’, adding that it was already ‘comprehensive’.
“We’re going to do the same for every new service we launch, we’re doing it in-house,” he added.
“You don’t need a big corporation to do that, we can build it out ourselves.
We’re very much looking to the future.”
He said T Mobile would also be adding to the TMO network in a ‘significant way’ by launching its own network in the coming months.
“What we have in place right now is a great portfolio of existing networks, we have a lot of good networks, some of them we’re very proud of and some of those we are not,” he explained.
“I can’t talk about the future plans at this point.
It’s really good for the business model. “
It’s a really important thing to do.
It’s really good for the business model.
We know that.”
The T-Max programme, launched in the UK earlier this year, has been widely hailed as the first of its kind in the country, with the company now claiming more than 70,000 customers.
Karrp said the T Max programme has been a success and has brought T-MO to ‘the top of the heap’ with T-mobiles in terms of the number that are paying for a new device.
“It’s very much the first time that we’ve seen a product in a major country that has this kind of impact, and it has been very, much a positive one,” he stated.
“This has been in the past, we’ve had the success of T-MAX before.
It was a very early product.
We saw it through the launch in the United Kingdom.””
It was a real test of the product that we were building.
We knew that we had a lot to work with and we knew that the network was really good.
We just hadn’t seen the scale of that before.”
Karp also said T Max was also proving very popular, with more than 50% of customers signing up for the SIM card.
He added that the company is confident that the launch of the new T-max programme will be “very successful” and will see more people taking advantage of the card.
“If you look at the growth rate, it was really exciting,” he remarked.
“They are really excited, they love it. “
“We know that there is going a lot more going on in the world of mobile now, and we’re looking forward to seeing that.””
T-Mobile has previously said it plans to launch a number, but it has not yet confirmed which one.”
We know that there is going a lot more going on in the world of mobile now, and we’re looking forward to seeing that.”
T-Mobile has previously said it plans to launch a number, but it has not yet confirmed which one.