Twitter cage wars: Sprint and T-Mobile CEOs go head-to-head again

By Robert Nazarian Published August 18, 2015

You need to start using Twitter if you aren’t already. There’s no place else where you can watch two major-company CEOs argue for everyone in the world to see. It’s pure entertainment at its finest. The recent slugfest involved Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure and T-Mobile CEO John Legere. They already had a Twitter battle last month, and round two has begun.

It all started when Legere mocked Sprint’s new leasing program last night by tweeting, “First “iPhone for Life” died. Now “iPhone Forever” expires in Dec. Next up, “iPhone for eternity,” expiring this afternoon. #SprintLikeHell.”

Recommended Videos

It took a little bit of time, but Claure replied with a taut comment about how Sprint beat out T-Mobile in a recent network performance test. He said, “@JohnLegere @sprint beats @TMobile again in overall national network performance … let’s see what’s the excuse is now.”

Legere couldn’t let that trash talk go unanswered, of course, and fought back with, “You know this isn’t a reliable study, man! Why do we have to go through this every time???” and “I get that you’re proud of this bullsh*t, antiquated report, @marceloclaure — but you still came in 4th.”

Legere continued with two additional tweets, “That time of year again! Couple guys from @rootmetrics drive around, get paid by carriers to test networks on a single old-generation phone.” and “A little road trip is not an accurate network study. We trust crowd-sourced info w/ real cust results See: @Ookla. http://bit.ly/1MKs2bH ”

That time of year again! Couple guys from @rootmetrics drive around, get paid by carriers to test networks on a single old-generation phone.

— John Legere (@JohnLegere) August 18, 2015

At some point during all of this, Claure tweeted this meme based on the “Straight Outta Compton” movie.

pic.twitter.com/XOeHG0O5sp

— Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) August 18, 2015

Legere tweeted back, “straight outta ideas.”

Claure also appeared on this morning’s CNBC Squawk Box to talk about Sprint’s new leasing program. Along with his explanation of the program, he chimed in with the fact that Legere “has been insulting everyone for way too long.” Claure went on to say, “He’s been beating up on our employees for way too long. That’s over, we’re back and winning customers and we’re just not going to let anybody to continue to insult Sprint.”

I don’t know about you guys, but I would like to see this one moved to WWE’s Monday Night Raw.

Robert Nazarian

Former Contributor

Robert Nazarian became a technology enthusiast when his parents bought him a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color. Now his biggest…

Topics

Mobile

T-Mobile made a $325 suitcase that you may actually want to buy

A woman standing at the edge of a dock with the bright pink T-Mobile Un-carrier On suitcase.

T-Mobile has been pushing its customers to travel more with its Coverage Beyond initiative, and now the company is offering something completely new for travelers: the Un-carrier On smart suitcase. Smart suitcases have been around for a while, giving owners access to things like USB charging ports while on the go. However, T-Mobile's limited-edition carry-on might just be one of the best ever made.

The Un-carrier On offers a plethora of features perfect for frequent fliers, such as wireless smartphone charging, USB-C charging ports for phones and more, a removable rechargeable 10,000mAh power bank, and a flat top that serves as a portable workstation for laptops. The Un-carrier On also is a pretty solid suitcase — sporting Transportation Security Administration-approved combination locks, smart tags for easy luggage tracking, and 360-degree spinning wheels.

Audio / Video

T-Mobile adding a free year of Apple TV+ to its most expensive plans

Apple TV icon on Apple TV.

T-Mobile today announced that it's giving subscribers to its most expensive mobile plan a free subscription to Apple TV+, which normally costs $60 a year. Those who are subscribed to the Magenta Max plan — which costs $85 a month for a single line — will get Apple's streaming service for free. If you've got T-Mobile's Magenta plan, which costs $70 a month for one line, you'll get six months of Apple TV+ for free.

The perk takes effect on August 31, 2022, and it's good for the foreseeable future. (A previous version of this story stated it was just for one year, but that's legacy copy on T-Mobile's website for the old perk that's being supplanted.)

Mobile

T-Mobile’s 5G Ultra Capacity network has four times the coverage of Verizon and AT&T

T-Mobile smartphone.

Last week, a report from Ookla revealed that T-Mobile's 5G and 4G LTE networks are nearly twice as fast as those of Verizon and AT&T. Today, Opensignal released the results of a new study that reveals one of the most significant reasons for T-Mobile's lead.

5G services cover a much wider range of frequencies than older cellular technologies, each with unique advantages and disadvantages. Since low-band 5G frequencies have considerably more range than higher frequencies and generally share the same airwaves as 4G/LTE services, all three carriers have leveraged this spectrum to provide their extended nationwide coverage. T-Mobile calls this its 5G Extended Range network, Verizon uses the term 5G Nationwide, and AT&T just calls it 5G.