Publications
Publications
- March 2016
- HBS Case Collection
T-Mobile in 2013: The Un-Carrier
By: John Beshears and Francesca Gino
Abstract
By 2013, the U.S. wireless industry was in the midst of a costly transition. As consumers began to embrace more sophisticated mobile devices, the industry's four main players spent heavily to improve their infrastructures for providing reliable high-speed data services. T-Mobile, the smallest of the four major carriers, lacked the scale of its competitors and risked falling further behind in the contest for market share. Faced with this daunting business environment, T-Mobile's new CEO declared war on the rest of the industry, decrying competitor pricing practices and upending the traditional contract-based business model. This case provides background information on the state of the wireless industry in 2013 and follows T-Mobile's early steps to transform its market position. In the course of the class discussion, students discover that more intense competition among firms in this market may drive wireless carriers to offer more complex contracts with more add-on fees. However, students also see that it is possible for a company to break out of this competitive dynamic without sacrificing market share.
Keywords
Wireless Industry; Telecommunications; Mobile; Service Contracts; Behavioral Economics; Add-on Fees; Shrouded Attributes; Contracts; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Infrastructure; Mobile Technology; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; United States
Citation
Beshears, John, and Francesca Gino. "T-Mobile in 2013: The Un-Carrier." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 916-048, March 2016.
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