T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom's U.S. mobile wing is quiet happy with the pace at which its customer base is growing and says that it will launch the "third-generation" mobile services in 2007.
T-Mobile USA Chief Executive Robert Dotson, said, "I believe we can keep up this speed of growth. We are a growth machine. We have to grow, grow, grow." T-Mobile USA added 957,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of 2005, taking its total subscriber base to 18.3 million. T-Mobile USA is the country's smallest national operator, but believes that there is still room for expansion as it is a known fact that there are more Americans as compared to Europeans or Japanese who are yet to own a mobile phone, Dotson said.
T-Mobile believes that the expected growth will come from people who will give up their fixed landlines entirely in favor of mobile phones. The company says that 10 to 15 percent of T-Mobile USA's customers have already switched over completely to mobile services.
T-Mobile International CEO Rene Obermann appeared confident about the company's growth prospects in the USA and said that he was not worried by the mergers in the United States, which have reduced the number of national mobile operators to four. T-Mobile USA is ranked fourth. "The fourth rank is a good position," Obermann said, and added that he sees a vast growth potential as T-Mobile USA had bigger purchasing power than any other operator in the U.S.
In other news to come out of the T-mobile stable, the company says that it is planning to launch the third-generation (3G) mobile phone services in 2007. 3G phones allow videophone calls and music downloads over mobiles. Chief Development Officer Cole Brodman, said, "We plan to begin the 3G rollout in the second half of next year and the first services shall launch in 2007."
