Sprint and T-Mobile CEOs at it again on Twitter

Sprint CEO to T-Mobile CEO: “Should we bet or are you scared?”

That was the kicker in a Twitter exchange between the rival companies’ top officers ahead of an expected national ranking of wireless network performance from RootMetrics Inc.

Marcelo Claure, less than a year at the helm of Sprint, offered to put his money behind his constant claims that his company’s network gets better every day.

No stakes were mentioned, and T-Mobile chief executive John Legere didn’t directly take up the challenge.

Their exchange began when Legere noted that RootMetrics had ranked the four national wireless companies’ network coverage at major airports. Verizon had “edged out” T-Mobile for the best performance, and Legere turned to Twitter to ask no one in particular how AT&T and Sprint had fared.

Claure’s comeback was to remind Legere that he had been “bashing” RootMetrics tests as being “unreliable” and to ask what had changed Legere’s mind. Sprint had ranked third, ahead of T-Mobile’s fourth place, in RootMetric’s most recent overall national report.

Legere repeated his point, asking how Sprint fared in the RootMetrics airport tests. This is when Claure raised the ante with his offer to bet.

Instead, Legere, jabbed at Claure with a suggestion that he spoke out of turn by disclosing news before it becomes public. Not news about the rankings but “news” that Sprint would survive another week.

This isn’t the first such social media exchange between Claure and Legere.

In a back and forth early this month, Claure used a crude reference to bull manure in describing T-Mobile’s long running Un-carrier marketing campaign. This came after Legere had questioned Sprint’s newest offer in the marketplace.

Claure’s comment caught attention in part because Legere is notoriously profane in public sessions.

The Twitter feeds of the two CEOs fell silent on the RootMetrics rankings, but their followers and detractors continued the battle.

Capping the exchanges was this colorful if not hopeful image from a Sprint fan.

This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 10:34 AM with the headline "Sprint and T-Mobile CEOs at it again on Twitter."