T-Mobile's President of Technology #NevilleRay to Retire This Fall; Ulf Ewa to Take Over

T-Mobile's President of Technology Neville Ray to Retire This Fall; Ulf Ewa to Take Over

Neville Ray, T-Mobile's President of Technology, will retire this fall and Chief Network Officer Ulf Ewa will fill his shoes. With Ray's departure, Ewa will lead T-Mobile's technology transformation team.

Under Ray's direction, the Un-carrier has developed and implemented a top-tier network strategy. As a result, it has been recognized by independent third parties as having built and implemented the fastest, most dependable 5G network in North America.

Neville Ray

Neville Ray, T-Mobile's president of technology, plans to retire this fall. He will be succeeded by current Executive Vice President and Chief Network Officer Ulf Ewa.

Since joining T-Mobile in April 2000, Ray has been instrumental in the management and growth of their wireless network, technology services and operations. As part of his 23 years at T-Mobile, he led a team that achieved numerous major network milestones as well as numerous industry firsts.

Ray was instrumental in the launch of 3G, creating the first Android smartphone using UMTS, and acquiring 600MHz spectrum for 600MHz service. Furthermore, his leadership enabled T-Mobile's nationwide LTE coverage via their network upgrade.

He set the standards for mobile communications and was an influential figure in developing and globalizing these technologies. His portfolio includes multi-standard radio base stations, antenna-integrated femto base stations, narrowband IoT solutions, virtualized network core solutions and more.

Ray's departure will void a significant hole in T-Mobile's leadership team, and he will be sorely missed. His work on the Un-carrier's wireless network transformation has been groundbreaking, and he is widely considered one of the most influential figures in mobile networking history.

Ray's legacy will be remembered for his vision and implementation of T-Mobile's 5G strategy. Throughout his tenure, he guided T-Mobile through a series of critical network upgrades that laid the foundation for them to become a national leader in 5G technology, CEO Mike Sievert said in a news release.

Ray also spearheaded T-Mobile's integration with Sprint, creating three major wireless carriers from four. Throughout this process, his team recognized the significance of mid-band spectrum for 5G success.

Ray has since successfully integrated Sprint's network and is now leading T-Mobile through their transition to 5G technology. Under his leadership, T-Mobile has become a national leader in 5G infrastructure building out its nationwide network at an incredible rate.

T-Mobile's 5G network has proven to offer superior performance and coverage in nearly every third-party test, according to nearly every independent evaluation. As the country transitions towards 5G, T-Mobile is striving to revolutionize how people think about wireless. Ultimately, whether consumers embrace 5G as a new way of doing things will determine its success.

Ulf Ewa

Neville Ray, T-Mobile's President of Technology since April 2000, plans to retire this fall. Throughout his tenure with the company, he played an instrumental role in transitioning their network from 2G to 5G technology.

Ulf Ewa will succeed him as T-Mobile's President of Technology upon his departure, having overseen the integration of Sprint's network.

Ray has spearheaded numerous industry innovations during his time at T-Mobile, such as nationwide LTE coverage, the merger with Metro PCS and acquisition of 600MHz spectrum. Furthermore, he played an instrumental role in T-Mobile's merger with Sprint in spring 2020 which cemented their place among leaders in 5G technology.

He and his team recognized that the 5G era would be determined by mid-band spectrum, and this shared vision proved to be the key factor in T-Mobile's incredible success.

His leadership enabled the Un-carrier to realize billions in network synergies ahead of schedule, improving customer satisfaction and driving churn down to record low levels.

Ulf has long been a pioneering force in the development of new technologies and products, earning him widespread recognition within the telecom industry. While at Ericsson, Ulf held a group executive position that earned him widespread respect for his passion and success with pioneering advances in mobile communications - innovations that would become industry standard today.

Ulf has been a research scientist at Linkoping University in Sweden for many years, researching the kinetics of thin film growth and microstructural evolution. His studies have ranged across various transition metal nitride materials, with particular attention paid to O-negative ion bombardment during magnetron sputtering during oxide film growth.

He was instrumental in the discovery of a method for producing artificial "super-hard" materials with hardness comparable to diamond. For his many accomplishments in plasma and coating physics, he was recently named a Fellow by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences for his contributions in this area.

T-Mobile’s Network Strategy

Neville Ray has 23 years of experience leading T-Mobile's technology strategy and building and leading world-class teams that have brought to life T-Mobile's largest, fastest, most reliable 5G network - an accomplishment which won him multiple awards over his tenure with the company.

He and his teams have established T-Mobile as the nation's overall network leader in both 2G and 4G, setting it apart from its rivals. After successfully integrating its network with Sprint following its merger, T-Mobile can leverage this position of strength as it embarks on its next 5G evolution.

Ulf Ewa has joined T-Mobile's leadership team as a Senior Advisor to Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President Neville Ray. Prior to that, Ewa served as Senior Advisor to Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm and will now lead T-Mobile's 5G technology evolution strategy.

Ewa, a longtime network innovator and thought leader, brings extensive knowledge of the wireless industry to his position at T-Mobile. He comes to T-Mobile after spending nearly 30 years working in various leadership capacities at Ericsson.

Ewa's most recent role was senior adviser to the CEO of Ericsson, but he also held several other high-level positions within the company. After moving with his family from Sweden last month, Ewa will be joining T-Mobile in Bellevue, Washington during the last week of January.

Home Broadband - T-Mobile has identified an opportunity to enter the $90 billion and growing broadband market. It is currently launching a pilot program of in-home broadband for consumers that has exceeded expectations. T-Mobile plans on expanding this service to between seven and eight million customers within five years.

Carrier Aggregation - T-Mobile is using its legacy PCS spectrum in the 1900 MHz band to deploy another layer of 5G network coverage and achieve significant speed increases through carrier aggregation. This added capacity has allowed speeds up to 3 Gbps in T-Mobile's testing.

T-Mobile can gain an edge over competitors who are currently struggling to upgrade their networks by adding additional capacity. This will give T-Mobile a competitive edge in rural markets where it has historically lost market share to Verizon and AT&T.

T-Mobile’s 5G Network

T-Mobile is building a nationwide 5G network to provide fast, dependable connectivity for people and things alike. Their system can be used in all kinds of settings - from densely populated areas to rural towns.

T-Mobile's 5G network takes a "layer cake approach," employing multiple technologies to guarantee coverage and speeds for all users and devices. These include low-band spectrum, mid-band spectrum, high-band spectrum as well as dedicated mmWave networks.

This public network will offer fast, dependable access to a range of applications from smart meters and tracking optimization to immersive virtual reality training. This network is designed with lower latency and more flexibility than legacy networks, providing data faster than ever before.

T-Mobile plans to deploy a new converged core gateway that makes it simpler for the company to reallocate resources and launch new services faster, as well as speed up time-to-market for its IoT capabilities such as network slicing and Voice over 5G (VoNR). Furthermore, with its more distributed network architecture than ever before, testing at scale becomes much faster and simpler.

Finally, T-Mobile is providing customers with a selection of 5G plans to maximize their network experience. These range from T-Mobile's prepaid plans and MVNOs to all Sprint plans which are equipped for 5G speeds.

The carrier has launched the "5G Forward" program to spur developers' creativity and innovation using 5G technology. It offers resources and a lab space so developers can test their projects with full network access in one convenient location.

T-Mobile is already using its 5G network to keep customers connected in everyday life and improve their businesses. These connections enable them to get more done - from connecting with clients to managing finances or providing healthcare in hospitals - by connecting all people and things together. T-Mobile strives to build the most revolutionary 5G network that will offer reliable connectivity for everyone and everything.