T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert used his seat on stage at this week’s Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference to “break news” of his carrier's plans to spend $19 billion over the next five quarters in repurchasing its own shares and in doling out dividends to shareholders. That news came just a week after the carrier broke news that it will be slashing 5,000 jobs.

Sievert took an initial question regarding “what’s next?” for T-Mobile to state one of those next things will be in using some of the carrier’s $16 billion to $18 billion it expects to generate in free cash flow next year to buy back some of its shares from investors. This latest $19 billion “tranche” will follow on an outstanding $14 billion program that is set to wrap up during T-Mobile's current third fiscal quarter.

T-Mobile will also use $3 billion from that $19 billion to fund its first annual dividend payment to investors.

“I think it's a demonstration of this business's ability to translate market-leading revenue growth into market-leading cash-flow growth,” Sievert explained of the financial move.

What’s also “next” for T-Mobile US is saying goodbye to 7% of its workforce.

Sievert last week sent an email to T-Mobile US employees, which was also included in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, explaining that approximately 5,000 employees were being let go. That represents around 7% of the carrier’s total employee base and will result in a one-time $450 million charge.

Sievert wrote that those people losing their jobs would be notified over the next five weeks and come “primarily in corporate and back-office, and some technology roles.”

“Impacted roles are primarily duplicative to other roles, or may be aligned to systems or processes that are changing, or may not fit with our current company priorities,” Sievert further explained in the letter. “Some areas of the business will be implementing more centralized models where they can improve efficiency and effectiveness and save costs. We’re also taking opportunities to build bigger, broader people-manager roles with deeper spans and fewer layers, to provide longer-term growth opportunities. At the same time, we’ll also be decreasing our reliance and spend on external workers and resources.”

Sievert laid the blame for the job cuts at the feet of the telecom carrier’s recent success, which have put the carrier “at a pivotal crossroads.”

“What it takes to attract and retain customers is materially more expensive than it was just a few quarters ago,” Sievert noted. “We’ve been outrunning this trend by accelerating merger synergies, and building our high-speed internet business faster than expected, and out-performing in a few other areas. However, it is clear that doing everything we are doing and just doing it faster is not enough to deliver on these changing customer expectations going forward.”

During the Goldman Sachs event, Sievert further explained that the job cuts would re-instill the carrier's agile nature.

“My job as the leader of our management team is to always look around corners and to make sure that I'm positioning our company to be successful not just this year, but for several years to come,” Sievert said. “And having that efficiency and that ability to compete, and that speed and decisiveness and entrepreneurship was something that we felt was very important to reclaim culturally.”

T-Mobile CEO Sievert: stable on FWA plans; Dish Network remains a mystery

Sievert during the Goldman Sachs event maintained a level of caution on the carrier’s ability to continue growing its rapidly expanding 5G fixed-wireless access (FWA) service. The carrier added 509,000 FWA connections to its high-speed internet (HSI) service during its most recent second quarter, pushing the carrier’s total FWA connection base to 3.7 million. That puts the carrier at the midpoint of the 7 million to 8 million FWA connections it said it can support “based on the excess capacity profile of our built mobile network.”

“I've been very clear as it relates to our fixed 5G service that it plays a role in the marketplace and we'll feel some single-digit penetration roll,” Sievert said. “It's a very mainstream offer, but we don't think it's going to take over cable and fiber. It kind of looks like it right now because our net-add performance is better than everybody's, but I've always been clear that we see some single-digit millions of penetration, single-digit percentage of penetration. We're on our way there, we're well ahead of schedule.”

Sievert also used that topic to refute potential competitive pressures coming from cable companies more aggressively entering the cellular communications space.

“We're not going to change the broadband world with that [FWA] offer in terms of swapping out half the customers in this country, and nor are they going to change wireless that significantly,” Sievert said. “We're coexisting with cable and wireless more than we're competing.”

Strangely absent from the Goldman Sachs proceedings was any question or update on Dish Network’s outstanding option to purchase a 14-megahertz chunk of 800 MHz spectrum from T-Mobile US that was part of T-Mobile US gaining approval for its purchase of Sprint. That deal was initially valued at $3.6 billion, with Dish Network holding an option to back out of the purchase and pay a $72 million breakup fee.

Sievert and Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen have been exchanging differing dates on when that decision has to be made.

Ergen, speaking during a recent call touting plans to merge Dish Network with Echostar, caused some consternation with financial analysts by dismissing the belief there was a deadline to decide on the spectrum acquisition.

“We don’t think there’s a hard date at this point,” Ergen said when asked about an August 11 deadline. “I think both sides are hopefully negotiating in good faith and we’ll see where that goes. But from an investor point of view, if we’re able to construct a transaction that will be positive and it won’t affect Dish’s balance sheet.”

Sievert during his company’s second-quarter earnings call stated that the deadline for that deal had “come and gone,” adding that “they asked for some additional time of the [Department of Justice] and we did not object to that.”

“And so we have committed that we would not terminate their agreement and right to do that at any time before August 11,” Sievert added. “We’re in discussions with Dish about whether or not there might be a win-win that’s different from their initial privilege. And if there is, that would be wonderful. But obviously, that deadline is coming. But our view was it was worth taking the extra time, especially since they asked for it in case there’s a bigger win-win to be had here.”

Recent reports indicate that Dish Network has filed to extend the deadline until next year, which T-Mobile US has reportedly asked to be denied.