The escalating battle between No. 2 U.S. mobile service provider AT&T Inc and smaller rival
T-Mobile US got personal on Monday night when the bigger operator kicked T-Mobile's
outspoken Chief Executive John Legere out of its party at the Consumer Electronics Show,
according to Cnet.com.
The latest sign of an increasingly testy relationship between the two companies, which tried to
merge in 2011, comes as they fight for each other's customers. AT&T said last week it would pay
T-Mobile customers to switch. According to a Cnet.com report, Legere was escorted out of the Las
Vegas event by security guards about 15 minutes after Cnet reporter Roger Cheng posted a picture
of himself and Legere and tweeted that the executive had crashed AT&T's party wearing his trademark
pink T-Mobile t-shirt.
Around the same time that Legere was being escorted out, AT&T's mobility chief Ralph de la Vega
was announcing that his company had won a deal to provide wireless connections to Audi vehicles,
beating T-Mobile US, Cnet reported. According to the Cnet report, Legere went to the party because
he wanted to see a performance by rapper Macklemore, whose agent gave the executive and
his entourage a pass for the party.
While AT&T and T-Mobile did not respond to requests for comment, Legere retweeted multiple
tweets about the incident, including Cheng's tweet that Legere was kicked out. Legere, an outspoken
critic of his industry rivals, spent most of 2013 directly marketing against AT&T in particular.
AT&T is most vulnerable to competition from T-Mobile because both companies have the same
network technology, which makes it easy for consumers to switch between their services without
having to buy new phones.
AT&T fought back by launching an offer on January 3 to T-Mobile customers for a $200 credit
if they switch to AT&T. Legere responded in a tweet directed at AT&T Chief Executive Randall
Stephenson asking “do you really think you can buy them back?” Legere has been tweeting heavily
to build up anticipation for his company's next competitive move, which is to be announced at a
January 8 CES press conference.
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