T-Mobile USA gets orders to increase revenue, cut costs

NEW YORK (AP) — T-Mobile USA, the country's fourth-largest wireless carrier, has some tough marching orders from its German parent company: do a better job of keeping your customers while cutting costs. And don't expect help from Germany.

Rene Obermann, the CEO of parent company Deutsche Telekom AG, today said the goal is to have T-Mobile USA increase revenue by $3 billion by 2014 while cutting $1 billion in costs.

The goals for new T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm come after two years of flat revenue for the company, which is struggling to compete with much larger rivals.

Obermann signaled that the parent company isn't looking to invest more in T-Mobile USA, and that it should finance its own investments, which could mean selling its cell towers to rent space on them.