T-Mobile CEO Sees Dish as Competitive ‘Factor Now'

Dish Network “is a factor now” in the competitive wireless space “with millions of customers,” T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert told a UBS investors conference Monday. Dish has a “fantastic” arrangement with mobile virtual network operators, he said. “At some point, they'll start releasing their own network” for 5G, said Sievert, “and we take them at face value on that. We've always assumed that in our forecast.” Dish didn’t comment Tuesday. Chairman Charlie Ergen said last month that “we’ll get our fair share” as the “fourth player” in the wireless market (see 2111040048). The T-Mobile CEO thinks “it's really neat to see how people are responding” to 5G, he said. About 30% of T-Mobile customers own 5G smartphones, he said. Those who subscribe to T-Mobile’s Magenta Max premium unlimited 5G data plan are doing “8X more gaming than people on LTE,” plus “many more times of video consumption,” he said.