T-Mobile CEO takes on the Verizon and AT&T ‘Duopoly’ in a video cartoon

That’s not Batman. It’s T-Mobile chief executive John Legere.

Legere, or at least his comic strip version, battles the “Duopoly” in an animated video asking the people to rise up against “a dark force plotting in the shadows,” also known as his competition.

The Duopoly would be Verizon and AT&T, the nation’s two largest wireless carriers, each of which have roughly as many subscribers as T-Mobile and Sprint combined. The label is a portrayal of the pair exercising a shared monopoly over the wireless world.

Verizon and AT&T have worn the duopoly label at least since then-Sprint CEO Dan Hesse battled (in real life) to stop AT&T from buying T-Mobile back in 2011.

T-Mobile’s dramatic cartoon has portrayed Verizon and AT&T as a two-headed monster with the power to control the nation.

At one point, comic-version Legere seems to fly in, sans cape but wearing his ever-present pink T, and knocks the duopoly in the jaw, or jaws, with a cellphone.

Flare aside, it is T-Mobile’s call for public pressure on federal regulators as they set the rules on an upcoming government-run auction of wireless spectrum.

Now you see the reason for the dramatics. Pretty dry stuff.

Also, Legere has a Batman thing going on.

Back to the story.

Spectrum is the licensed airwaves that T-Mobile and its rivals, plotting and otherwise, use to carry data to cellphone users. Smartphones consume data as their owners stream video, download apps and post photos online.

As the video points out, different spectrum comes with different powers, er, capabilities. The best for running a wireless phone network is low-band spectrum, and Uncle Sam is getting ready to hold an auction for some valuable low-band spectrum.

T-Mobile is asking for the feds to give it more of a leg up in the bidding against the much larger and financially stronger AT&T and Verizon. Rules that give T-Mobile a better chance of landing more of the low-band spectrum also would help Sprint in that bidding.

Here’s CNet.com’s explanation of why Legere’s all fired up about it.

This story was originally published June 23, 2015 at 11:05 AM with the headline "T-Mobile CEO takes on the Verizon and AT&T ‘Duopoly’ in a video cartoon."