Photo: Chris Jones (center) talks with Omdia analyst Jay McBain (left) and T-Mobile's George Fischer (right) at Chanel Partners Conference.
Chris Jones spent his first week with T-Mobile for Business at Channel Partners Conference, sitting on two keynote panels and meeting with partners he has known for decades.
AT&T veteran Jones took on the role of VP of ecosystems and partner alliances for T-Mobile Business last week. While it was too soon for him to talk about specific plans at the conference, he did offer insights on what needs to be done in today’s telco world and what T-Mobile has to offer.
“There are a lot of really good things going on at T-Mobile,” he said. “We have a lot of good assets. The bigger thing is really modernizing what we're doing — not building the channel of yesterday, but focusing on what the channel of tomorrow looks like. What happens when you start integrating neo-clouds and AI? What is AI going to do to technology? The partner community is going to completely change — who's involved in these decisions is going to change. So what we need to do at T-Mobile is take all the assets we have, build a foundation, and use that as the jump-off point to prepare for the future rather than worrying about how we've historically done things.”
Jones said a key strategy is to “eliminate the friction” between T-Mobile and channel partners. “Make it simple and frictionless to work together,” he said. “No one wants a root canal just to put a solution in front of a customer.”
Jones had two stints at AT&T, each lasting more than a decade and totalling over 29 years. His first AT&T run started in 1992. Before joining T-Mobile he spent the past 14 months leading GTT’s partner channels.
“T‑Mobile channel hired ex‑AT&T channel executive Chris Jones to enhance partner program design and improve distribution,” Omdia Channels principal analyst Devan Adams wrote on LinkedIn. “He will address things like partner experience, onboarding, and reconnecting wireless with TA/TSD workflows.
Why T-Mobile now?
“It was just such an exciting opportunity to come to a company that is a challenger from its core,” Jones said. “There are so many assets that T-Mobile has. When you look at what's going on with channels and technology, it creates an environment where you want a true challenger that can come and disrupt. What T-Mobile is all about is disruption, changing the game, doing things differently. It just feels like all the pieces are there. It's time to just bring it all together, build something with the channel and really do something completely different.”
AI Will Trigger Convergence
AI is the vehicle for disruption, for T-Mobile was well as other telcos.
“We’re trying to modernize how we approach the channel,” Jones said. “When you think about technology and AI, as long as I've been part of the channel, we've been talking about the IT channel and the telco channel converging. I think AI is now the trigger that's going to make it converge."
It was no coincidence that Jones started his T-Mobile gig at Channel Partners Conference, where he has been a regular since 2009.
“I've sort of grown up with most of the people in the room,” he said. “And it feels to me like everyone in the industry has reached out over the weekend. And 15-20, years ago, I'm sure the room didn't trust me at all. The fact I'm still here after all those years, shows how we built the mutual trust together so that we can go and accomplish what we have to accomplish going forward.”