T-Mobile CEO Says Shared Data Plans Could Be Felled With All That Porn You’re Watching

Everybody likes a CEO that says outrageous things and talks smack about the competition while wearing the “Look, I’m a regular guy like you!” outfit of a T-shirt and blazer. The above reasons are all part of why John Legere of T-Mobile scored a win with his recent Q&A session during the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. And also he mentioned pornography, a guaranteed ear pricker-upper.

While sadly, we weren’t there to witness what sounds like a jolly good time, PCMag says Legere’s chat was amusing, to say the least. It sounds like he had words for each and every of T-Mobile’s competitors, all of which are above his No. 4 company in the U.S. He didn’t hold back, either. A few of our favorites from PCMag’s recap:

On AT&T: “Does anyone use AT&T in New York City? Is anyone satisfied with their service? Of course not. The network’s crap.” [and then later] “I didn’t say the network’s crap, it’s just not as good as ours. That’s not the common person’s understanding, but it’s true, and it’s going to get even better.”

On Sprint LTE: “You mean when Sprint announced it, and then they announced that they were behind, and then they announced the two markets they would announce later?”

On Verizon: “The way they covered those dust bowl states with LTE, I think, is admirable… they have a beautiful network, incredible capability. They spent more money than a small nation building out that network. But shared data plans are a thing of the past. A 10-gigabyte, 5-device shared data plan, when Joe Schmoe Junior starts to watch porn on his phone, isn’t going to work.”

Ooh, did you catch that? If customers are trying to watch porn on their phones, everything will fall apart. Porndatapocalypse, anyone?

Legere also bemoaned subsidized phones, which makes sense as he told Reuters in an interview that T-Mobile will be doing away with subsidies in the near future.

“You are paying every penny for their phones,” he said during the Q&A. “You are not getting a $99 phone. Anyone who thinks they are, come with me into the back. While you’re handcuffed, they go into your pockets and they take your money.”

When speaking to Reuters, of course, he was a bit more staid:  “If the old industry structure chooses to ignore what we do,” he said, “That’s a potential.”

In other T-Mobile news, Legere says the much awaited arrival of the iPhone will be happening a lot sooner than originally thought  — more like three to four months instead of six to nine, just like with the end of subsidies. Cue drooling T-Mobile customers, and hey, thanks for the laughs, Legere.

T-Mobile CEO: Porn Could Kill Shared Data Plans [PCMag]
T-Mobile USA to soon sell iPhones, cut subsidies: CEO [Reuters]

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