T-Mobile CEO steps down
T-Mobile CEO Robert Dotson is stepping down to "transition to new opportunities in 2011." Phillipp Humm, a long-time executive at T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom, will take over in May as CEO.
Humm was the former CEO of T-Mobile Deutschland and most recently chief regional officer Europe for Deutsche Telekom. Humm is expected to take over T-Mobile USA in February 2011 and Dotson will be a non-executive board member until May.
Dotson said he was looking to spend more time with his family and take on new things (statement). Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann said he respected Dotson's decision and noted that the company is in good hands with Humm, who has worked at McKinsey, Procter & Gamble and Amazon. He is credited for turning around T-Mobile Deutschland as CEO from 2005 to 2008. He also was behind a joint venture in the U.K. between T-Mobile UK, Orange UK and France Telekom.
Humm's first order of business will be to turn around T-Mobile's USA's subscriber additions. In the first quarter, T-Mobile lost 77,000 customers, down from an addition of 415,000 a year ago. In addition, T-Mobile is upgrading its 3G network to HSPA+.
T-Mobile USA ended the first quarter with 33.7 million customers. Here's the first quarter pecking order for wireless carriers for post-paid subscribers, which are the most lucrative:
- AT&T (earnings) added 512,000 retail post-paid subscribers;
- Verizon Wireless (earnings) had 423,000 post-paid subscribers;
- Sprint (earnings) lost 578,000 post-paid customers;
- And T-Mobile lost 118,000 post-paid subscribers.
Related: Prepaid models about to alter wireless carrier dynamics