T-Mobile is a consumer favorite. Now it is trying to break into the business world

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The company announced a series of new offerings for corporate customers on Thursday: wireless business plans with unlimited data and 5G access, cloud-based workplace communication tools and a “Home Office Internet” program.

The new services aim to take advantage of not only T-Mobile’s 5G network, but also the massive shift to home working during the pandemic. 5G is the next generation of wireless network technology that offers faster speeds and higher bandwidth compared to existing 4G LTE networks.
It’s a big strategy shift for the country’s third largest wireless network provider. In his announcement, T-Mobile TMUS recognized that competitors AT&T T. (CNN’s parent company) and Verizon VZ Control more than 90% of the corporate wireless market.

“We now have the resources and the unparalleled network to not just be in the game, but to change the game,” CEO Mike Sievert said at a press conference on Thursday.

For the new business wireless plans with unlimited data and 5G access, T-Mobile says it will match the price of comparable plans from AT&T and Verizon that impose data caps. It also introduced T-Mobile Collaborate, a suite of cloud-based workplace communication tools for corporate clients, including video conferencing, automatic meeting transcription, and other features.

The other new product is T-Mobile “Home Office Internet”, a tool intended to replace the sometimes spotty Internet connections at home. When a company subscribes to this service, T-Mobile sends routers to its employees that connect directly to cellular networks to provide Internet to work devices – so remote workers don’t have to share the same Wi-Fi connection with family members who are also stuck working or training. from home.

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The enterprise business is one of the biggest potential growth areas for T-Mobile in the coming year, along with the expansion of its customer base in rural America, Mike Katz, executive vice president of T-Mobile for Business, told CNN Business. in an interview on Thursday. .

Acquisition of new customers in T-Mobile’s business-to-business segment grew 300% in 2020 and segment revenue increased 200% over the same time frame. The company expects that growth to continue.

“If you just look at the math … [it will be] a market of $ 40 billion in the next five years and T-Mobile has less than 10% of that, so we think there is a huge opportunity for us to grow in revenue, ”said Katz.

While AT&T and Verizon have discussed business applications for 5G, such as factories with private networks full of connected robots that make manufacturing safer, this often requires additional investment and the deployment of infrastructure. T-Mobile is also working on those kinds of offerings, but Katz said the company is targeting services that businesses can use immediately – a need that is sharply highlighting the pandemic.

“We’re not going back to the way we used to work,” said Katz. “We wanted a suite of services that would allow employees using the mobile network to truly work from anywhere.”

T-Mobile has been lagging behind AT&T and Verizon in the enterprise sector for years as it tries to grow and improve its own network, Katz said. But now T-Mobile’s unique spectrum portfolio for 5G could give it a head start: it is well positioned to provide 5G business services that don’t need to be in one central location, as it has much of the ‘midband’ spectrum obtained as part of the Sprint acquisition last year. AT&T and Verizon can’t match that just yet, he noted.

“We believe this gives us a great opportunity to grow T-Mobile’s overall US business through a growing share of the company,” said Katz.

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