Big Bets in a New Decade

Some think of the beginning of a year — and a decade — as a chance to turn the page. I think of it as a hard right swipe into the future! And for people who tend to geek out on tech (like me!) it’s always exciting to think about what a new decade will bring when it comes to technology. Ten years is a long time! Of course, then there are big possibilities out there that are even closer to home … like a truly transformational broad and deep 5G network that a combined T-Mobile and Sprint would be able to deliver to consumers. We’re talking faster response times, massively increased data speed and capacity, more reliable connections … so many possibilities that are almost unbelievable — except that they’re right here in front of us and we’re on the cusp of making them a reality! So, to kick off the new year (and new decade!), in the spirit of John’s annual predictions, here’s what I’m excited about for the next year, decade, and beyond!

Everyone Everywhere is Connected

I think about T-Mobile’s future in context to our strategy and how our strategy is so different than some of our competitors’. Verizon is betting on millimeter wave — they believe it’s more important to have gigabit speeds in a few places, than to have true nationwide 5G coverage. AT&T is betting on combining media and wireless — they’ve spent billions betting on the bundle. And speaking of bundles, cable companies like Comcast and Charter are going all in on a separate bundling strategy that will no doubt COST you a bundle. (Why would they change their strategy of gouging customers now?)

We’re betting on mobility — everywhere. For everyone. That wireless device in the palm of your hand has opened up endless opportunities. But this is just the start. When I look ahead five years, I see that connections will exponentially increase because literally everything can be connected. We’ve just begun to scratch the surface! In a hyper-connected 5G world, EMTs treating a patient in an ambulance will be able to virtually work alongside a doctor at a hospital in real-time to save more lives. Something as simple as trash collection will be revolutionized by containers “talking” to trucks to prioritize the most in need routes and stops.

Everyone is betting that IoT will change our lives, so I’m not alone — but I truly believe that the national high-capacity network we are building will change lives EVERYWHERE in the next decade. Not just in big cities or for big businesses. I believe we’re going to see a massive wave of change and innovation here. And this is going to have big impacts on the economy — up to $11 trillion by 2025 according to one study.

Finally, getting everyone connected is also a matter of cost. Over the next decade, connections will achieve a new level of affordability, making the promise of the mobile life a reality for more people. And T-Mobile will be leading the way. As T-Mobile announced with “New T-Mobile Un-Carrier 1.0 — 5G For Good,” the massive capacity of the New T-Mobile’s network will enable even more affordable connections. It will even enable huge new initiatives like “Connecting Heroes,” our groundbreaking initiative to connect the nation’s state and local first responders for free. And “Project 10Million” — our unprecedented initiative to help bridge the digital divide with up to 10 million completely free home hotspot connections for households with school-aged children, closing what’s known as “the homework gap” for the first time. I’m so excited to bring our technology to more and more people.

The Smartphone Starts to Give Way to New Forms, Enhancing Our Connected Lives Even Further

I love my smartphone. Well, most of the time ??. The amount of information and entertainment that can flow from that tiny screen is pretty amazing. But I truly believe the smartphone is just the start on our journey toward a more connected life. As I mentioned above, our new 5G network will enable massive connectivity — millions of simultaneously connected devices that are getting more and more cost-effective to design and produce.

That’s going to open up some amazing possibilities for “successor” devices to the smartphone. Don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere, but the reality is, our phones are evolving and will soon be partially replaced by new devices that will change — and improve — the way we get information and interact. Highly connected wristwatches and earbuds will transform how we interact with the technology we carry. Smart glasses will help people navigate the world, and interact with other people, in new ways. Sensors will collect even more advanced biometric data to assist with our well-being.

The best examples so far are wearables like the Apple Watch. What started as a fashionable fitness tracker has now become a device that nicely complements your phone and has even started to replace it. So not only can it count your steps, track your heart rate, record how far you swam (all while looking really cool on your wrist). You can now make calls with it on the run (literally) without your phone nearby, stream music into your wireless headphones, and ask Siri or Google those burning questions, among many other things. But this is only the beginning. Soon your eyewear (think Google Glass, evolved) will be sending you real-time information powered through 5G technology. Thinking about stepping foot into the latest restaurant on your block? Just by glancing at it, you’ll be able to see how many stars it has on Yelp. And if you stare a little longer at the place, you’ll be prompted to make a reservation through OpenTable and then be able to scroll through a menu and even pre-order.

Better 5G connections, improved battery and power technology, and lower-cost chipsets will open up a whole new chapter to our connected life, and we’ll start to see some of the possibilities this decade.

Autonomous Vehicles Will Make Us Safer and Bring Us Closer

We know Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will be a game-changer. The technology powering these cars is going to be super sophisticated, and the amount of data-sharing to make sure they function safely is going to be astronomical (companies like Aptiv, Uber and Cruise, Argo AI and Waymo have all released open datasets). I’ve been lucky enough to drive a Tesla for a few years now and to check out the improvements in newer models as they are released. The changes are coming rapidly. Remote software updates for autonomous features like automatic emergency braking show a clear roadmap to ongoing autopilot upgrades. 5G will play a critical role in getting this technology up and running across the industry, and I’m so excited that we get to be part of that!

This is important. Autonomous Vehicle technology — when it’s fully ready — will help address the huge public health crisis that is human-caused traffic accidents. According to the World Health Organization, 1.35 million people die each year around the world as a result of traffic accidents. Upward of 90% of traffic accidents are caused by people making mistakes. Over 100 per day are lost in the U.S. alone. Imagine if that was completely eradicated. If drunk and distracted driving were forever eliminated. Some predict that advanced driverless cars will cut accidents by up to 90% — I agree. It will take some time, and it will work better once adoption is more widespread (computers predicting human behavior is the hard part). But in time, AVs have the potential to effectively save millions of people each year.

But it’s not just about safety. AVs are going to completely change the lives of people who can’t drive, due to the high cost, or their age or disability, or a host of other things. My own mom is starting to lose her eyesight and is driving less and less. Without Uber, her world would already be shrinking. AVs will transform how we think about mass transit, bridging the “last mile” in transit infrastructure in a highly convenient and cost-effective way. This is going to unfold over more time than just this decade, but we’ll see major changes take root in the ’20s. All of this requires enormously powerful connections — and that’s where we come in, connecting the systems — the sensors and beacons and other devices. I predict that our networks will play a central role in making AVs a transformative technology for good.

AR and Wireless Networks Will Start to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Humanity

When many people hear AR, or augmented reality, they think of Pokémon Go. The game took the world by storm and had everyone (my own family included) staring at their screens trying to catch ‘em all in parks, on street corners, and even in our own backyards. But this example of AR is just scratching the surface and, like a lot of other technology I’ve mentioned, there are big potential impacts for what’s to come.

Picture this: Through AR, you will literally have a seat at the table of any meeting with your colleagues. It might feel no different than being in the same room with them even though you may be on another continent. Turn your head, and you’ll be able to see the entire conference room — from the wallpaper to being able to look a colleague in the eye and share your ideas. Done right, this is all possible, and it could be game-changing. 5G — particularly the 5G the proposed New T-Mobile promises — will bring with it the capacity to offer telepresence experiences we’ve never seen before.

This is a big deal. Today, a massive part of the carbon footprint we create is from travel. Commuting to work. Airline travel for meetings. We move our human bodies from place to place, at great cost economically and ecologically, precisely because today’s technology isn’t an adequate replacement to being there. Tomorrow, it will be, at least for a much wider set of situations, with evolved AR that is profoundly real. I’m excited for the possibilities here — and how our networks will unleash the creativity of innovators in hardware and software, to bring us “virtually” closer than ever before.

Real Human Service Experiences will be Valued Even More, in Our Increasingly Digital World

My team hears it from me all the time, but it’s true: If we want to be the best brand in America — and not just in wireless — we have to meet the customer where they are, not just what’s most convenient for us. The best example is how most companies treat customer support. You call with a problem, and it ends with you shouting at a robot. It’s an awful experience (so awful that one poll found a large chunk of Americans would rather clean a toilet than have to deal with it). Can’t blame them!

At T-Mobile, though, we decided we didn’t want to be that company. Instead of using technology to create walls with our customers, we’re using it to create stronger connections with them. Anytime you call or message our customer support — we call it Team of Experts (or TEX) — you’re immediately connected with a real, live person. But wait. Don’t have time to call us? You can use your phone to message directly with one of our Experts in between your meetings at work. Want us to get back to you during your lunch break? Excellent! We can schedule that. It’s all up to you, the customer. We’re not into making you jump through extra hoops.

John mentioned the results we’ve seen from our Team of Experts model — from increased customer loyalty to saving the company more than $100 million. It turns out that treating customers like rock stars isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s great for business, too! As we enter the new decade, expect companies to start seeing the light … putting a premium on customer experience across the board — from retail to customer service to things we haven’t even thought of yet. And one last thing: Remember, you heard it here first (in the last decade)! 

Retail Must Embrace the Experience Economy — Or Else…

Today with the swipe of a finger, we can get just about any product delivered directly to our doors all without even getting up from the couch. It’s no secret that retail has changed a lot and the impact of the likes of Amazon on brick and mortar retail has been huge.

That’s not to say retail is dead. Far from it. Though online shopping is easier than ever, people still want and value in-person experiences. In fact, as I said before, we may value real experiences because of the digital world, as a sort of counter-balance. We want to touch and feel products and talk to experts. We want relationships and memorable experiences. In fact, one survey found that 72 percent of millennials want to spend their money on experiences rather than on things — and retail has definitely evolved to that.

You can already see it. The places where you shop have become way more interactive and engaging. It’s never a dull experience — because it can’t be anymore. Favorite big-box stores like Nordstrom now have the best in-store restaurants, product sample bars, and highly trained salespeople and services like alterations and hairstyling available onsite. Cosmetics retailer Glossier, also a huge online player (90+% of their sales come from the internet!) didn’t give up on retail. In fact, they doubled down on it, building stores that are all about the experience. “We’re not focused on selling you stuff,” founder and CEO Emily Weiss told the New York Times. “We don’t have people working on commission. When you’re in such a transactional time — a time of Amazon having engineers working on cross-selling and upselling and better and better algorithms to get you to buy stuff — it’s really important to create spaces and experiences that help you feel things.” She described the feel of the space as an “adult Disneyland.”

Another cool example is retail concept STORY, which was founded a few years back to “create a different type of store where, for example, you could take a yoga class and discover the best water bottle from a small business in Brooklyn.” What’s so cool is that STORY completely changed the store’s layout, inventory — everything — every other month or so around a new theme. The lines were literally out the door. They had this figured out early on, too! Over the span of seven years, STORY changed over 40 times, worked with over 5,000 different small businesses, hosted more than 500 events — and is now owned by Macy’s, which obviously sees how smart this experiential model is.

Like other retailers, we still take a lot of pride in delivering the best service and products to customers every day in our stores, but we understand how important it is to make things interesting and fresh. A favorite from last year is when we teamed up with Taco Bell to provide an immersive experience in our signature stores. While shopping for a new phone, guests could stop by our co-branded TMo-Bells to get some free tacos. This wasn’t just a stunt, either. By providing this in-store experience, we saw a massive spike in foot traffic — a 784% increase in Chicago, 555% increase in Los Angeles, and a 378% increase in New York City. Expect more of that into the future from us … and everyone else … or else. Because though retail will continue to live on, but if you don’t sell experiences with your product, you will fail. 

Entertainment Adapts to our Lifestyles — or It Gets Passed By

I’m a big Star Wars guy. So you can only imagine how excited I was to get both a Star Wars movie at the end of 2019 and a show that takes place within the same universe. It was a smart move by Disney to launch the show with the debut of its streaming service, allowing them to tap into a passionate fan base to help fuel subscriptions while introducing the saga to newer generations. 24 million out-of-the-gate subscribers is an impressive feat.

All the same, I can’t help but notice the year over year declines in movie ticket sales. Remember, entertainment is like other retail — if you don’t offer a better EXPERIENCE than digital, it’s going to be an increasingly tough go. That’s why I’m not surprised that in a declining movie scene, IMAX is doing well (only 2D for me, please). And theaters that offer food and drinks are expanding.

Even streaming has to adapt as our demands change. This past decade saw a fundamental shift in how consumers view movie and TV content — from cable on TV sets to on-demand content from streaming providers to bingeing “Netflix on Us” right on your phone. It seems like everyone’s getting in the content game. So, what can we expect as the streaming wars heat up? First of all, the next front will take place on our smartphones, with streaming services finding ways to push bite-sized — but high-quality — content to its subscribers. Hey, it’s no coincidence that we recently announced a partnership with Quibi, an exciting new entertainment platform designed specifically for your phone.

Over the last few years, we’ve learned a ton through our successes with “Binge On” and ”Netflix on Us.” One thing we know for sure: Viewing habits are going mobile. And we’re not talking your average 90-minute movie. About 80% of video streamed on our network is short-form video — through platforms like YouTube and TikTok. People want content on the go and packaged specifically for their phone, and highly tailored specifically for them.

Also, and we’ve already discussed — mobile technology is rapidly advancing. Just imagine what creators like J.J. Abrams could do using your 5G-powered phone as the medium. We’re talking entertainment that’s location aware, allowing you to tap into the environment around you. Entertainment that uses your smartphone’s camera to immerse you inside the filmmaker’s world — or even connect with other devices. Who knows. But one thing’s for sure — the rapidly changing network, hardware, and software technology is going to unlock new forms of creativity, and I love that.

Something to Root for!

Of course, there’s probably no greater collective “experience” than live sports. And, more than we probably realize, mobile technology plays a huge role in augmenting our viewing experience. According to Google Think, 77% of us watch sports with a device in hand — the second-screen experience has moved up to first string. 5G is going to take sports viewing —and cheering — to the next level. I love live sports events, but the idea of being on my couch and still feeling like I’m experiencing the action in-person sounds kind of amazing (and the beers are so much easier to get!).

I’m personally really excited about this as a fan — and Seattle is an awesome sports city! I root for the University of Washington Huskies every season, love watching our Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park, and take my role as 12th Man for our Seahawks pretty seriously. I am also super excited about our NHL team coming in 2021. You can bet I’ll be an early adopter when new tech rolls out that creates an even more enhanced fan experience — at home! Wait — just had a thought to round out this post! Maybe our 5G network could help bring back the Sonics to Seattle?? That process sure could benefit from less lag time and zero latency!! ?? 

Happy New Decade! The ’20s are going to be “Roaring”!

—Mike

Key info: New T-Mobile.com