T-Mobile makes a smart move by praising Verizon in a recent television commercial.
Over 20 years ago, when the time came for me to pick a wireless provider, I wanted the carrier that had the best coverage and was the most reliable. Back then, the choice was easy. Verizon was more expensive than the rest, but you would get what you paid for. With two children, I wanted to make sure that I’d be able to get in touch with them whenever I called. In 2005, Verizon had the best wireless network in the U.S.
The T-Mobile of 2005 had absolutely no resemblance to the T-Mobile of today. Led by the EDGE platform, dubbed 2.5G, it would be another three years before T-Mobile customers would get to experience the huge speed increase and improvement in features available with 3G service. The man who would be considered T-Mobile’s savior when he became president and CEO of the company 10 years later, John Legere, was in the process of turning around Global Crossing. The latter is a multinational telecommunications company that was coming out of bankruptcy.
T-Mobile’s advertising campaign back in 2005 did not call T-Mobile the „un-Carrier as that name would debut under Legere. The carrier did focus its advertising on teens due to the success of T-Mobile’s Sidekick device. The Sidekick II was released in 2004, and in 2006 the Sidekick 3 was launched. The device had a swiveling screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, and integrated instant messaging and email capabilities. As a messaging device, the Sidekick was a huge hit.
On the opposite side of the spectrum was Verizon, whose network was considered the most reliable with the fewest dropped calls. However, Verizon’s plans were more expensive than T-Mobile’s.
