T-Mobile Parent Calls Growth ‘Unsustainable’

The magenta giant and their trademark “Uncarrier” movement has really spurred a lot of changes in the mobile world as far as price, data, contracts and several other features are concerned. Last year the carrier saw several M&A talks, all of which were unsuccessful for one reason or another. For a while there, it looked like T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom was content to let T-Mobile grow under the obnoxious yet successful leadership of CEO John Legere. However, it appears that is no longer the case.

In an article on Re/Code, Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges said that T-Mobile’s growth is unsustainable and that the company will need to invest a huge amount of money in their network to keep up with wireless giants AT&T and Verizon.

“The question is always the economics in the long term … and earning appropriate money,” Hoettges said in the article. “You have to earn your money back at one point in time.”

Although aggressive promotions have helped the smallest of the carriers grow to considerable size, Deutsche Telekom is still leaning towards acquisition as the best possible alternative. Of course, someone would have to step forward with a proposal A.) that won’t be blocked by legislators (like the abandoned Sprint deal last year) and B.) is lucrative enough for Deutsche Telekom to accept.

Personally, I’m rooting for someone like US Cellular or one of the other smaller companies to step up and merge with the company to carry it forward, but who knows what the year will bring?