John Legere stepped down as CEO of T-Mobile on Wednesday, as the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint was officially completed.
Mike Sievert, whose previous role was T-Mobile’s president and chief operating officer, will take over as CEO of the combined company effective immediately, the telecom giant announced.
Legere’s contract with the company was set to expire on April 30, but with the merger completed, he decided to hand over the reins sooner.
“It makes much more sense to transition this responsibility to Mike today,” Legere wrote. “Mike was the first person I hired at T-Mobile and I have tremendous faith in his ability to take the Un-carrier into its next SUPERCHARGED chapter.”
Legere has been CEO of T-Mobile since 2012 and was the first to officially announce news of the merger through a tweet in June 2018. Legere will still serve as a member of T-Mobile’s board of directors.
Sievert said he will be prioritizing continuing to roll out T-Mobile’s 5G network across the country.
“During this extraordinary time, it has become abundantly clear how vital a strong and reliable network is to the world we live in. The New T-Mobile’s commitment to delivering a transformative broad and deep nationwide 5G network is more important and more needed than ever and what we are building is mission-critical for consumers,” Sievert said.
Now that the two cell phone carriers have officially combined, the company now has more than 126 million subscribers, which brings it closer to its competitors like AT&T and Verizon.
The “New T-Mobile” network will reportedly have 14 times more capacity than before and will provide 5G connectivity to 99% of the U.S. population all within the next six years.
While T-Mobile has been busy working on its massive low-band network, Sprint’s mid-band coverage offered slightly faster speeds with lower latency. With the two networks now working together, customers should see more robust coverage across the country, especially in rural areas.
New T-Mobile’s business plan is built on covering 90% of rural Americans with average 5G speeds of 50 Mbps, which is up to two times faster than broadband on average.
