Gopalan is the heir apparent to Sievert at T-MobileGopalan is the heir apparent to Sievert at T-Mobile

Srinivasan Gopalan, a Brit who's currently leading Deutsche Telekom's German business, appears to be in line to take over T-Mobile's US operations when the company's current CEO, Mike Sievert, departs.

Gopalan "is the heir apparent," said Analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics. Entner is a longtime veteran in the US wireless industry and has deep ties to the leadership of most of the nation's big wireless network operators.

"The board is comfortable" with Gopalan, Entner said, noting that Gopalan is "a process optimization guy" and would likely bring that skill to play in T-Mobile's US business. 

"I think he would have a lot of fun in the US doing that," Entner said.

Puzzle pieces

Gopalan is set to become T-Mobile's COO on March 1, the US company announced Monday. That's the same job that Sievert had before he succeeded John Legere as T-Mobile's CEO in 2020.

Gopalan's new position as COO would appear to put him ahead of two other T-Mobile executives: Callie Field and Jon Freier. Both were widely viewed as potential replacements for Sievert.

Sievert's contract with T-Mobile ends in 2028.

Gopalan's new job would appear to signal an interest by T-Mobile's parent company – Germany's Deutsche Telekom – to tighten its control of its US operations, rather than to pass leadership to one of T-Mobile's existing, US-based executives. 

Deutsche Telekom gained control over T-Mobile in 2023.

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