Long-time T-Mobile US technology executive Neville Ray is set to leave the company later this year and will be replaced by current carrier exec Ulf Ewaldsson. The change will cap a significant 23-year role for Ray in leading that carrier’s extensive technology journey.

“It’s bittersweet, but with T-Mobile’s network leadership now established, there has never been a better time to announce my retirement,” Ray wrote in a LinkedIn post.

“Our technology team has gone above and beyond, delivering countless global wireless firsts, and I’m forever grateful for the friendships and joy this team has brought me. I’m not going anywhere just yet so more to come from me, but today is a personal milestone day.”

Ray joined T-Mobile US in 2000, when the carrier operated under the VoiceStream Wireless banner. VoiceStream – and fellow regional operator Powertel – were soon acquired by German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom and plugged in under its worldwide T-Mobile operating brand.

Ray oversaw T-Mobile US’ GSM-based transition path from 2G (GSM/GPRS), to 3G (UMTS/HSPA), to 4G (LTE), and on to its current 5G-based network. This also included the integration of acquired CDMA-based networks from MetroPCS and eventually Sprint.

That Sprint deal marked T-Mobile US’ most recent executive shuffle that saw bombastic CEO John Legere turning over that role to current CEO Mike Sievert.

“There are so many things Neville has contributed to this company but one of the most important has been his commitment to building the best, most effective technology team in this industry that will continue to deliver for our future,” Sievert noted in a statement on Ray’s departure. “Neville and his team have worked tirelessly to bring the un-carrier from last to best in network performance and made T-Mobile’s network a true competitive weapon. What’s even more exciting is that we’re just getting started! As this next chapter of the un-carrier story is beginning to unfold, we owe a lot of gratitude to Neville for all he’s done to carve this path that will continue to lead us into the future!”

Ewaldsson joined T-Mobile US just prior to that shuffle in early 2019, having previously served as CTO at Ericsson. During his time at Ericsson, Ewaldsson served under current Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg.

At T-Mobile US, Ewaldsson was initially SVP for technology transformation before being promoted to his current role as EVP and chief network officer in 2021. The leadership stack and responsibilities below Ewaldsson is set to remain the same as it has been under Ray. This includes EVP and CIO Brian King, EVP and CTO Abdul Saad, and EVP and Advanced and Emerging Technologies executive John Saw all continuing to report to Ewaldsson after the transition.

T-Mobile technology progress and outage

T-Mobile US’ technology leadership move does come during somewhat of a lull in T-Mobile US’ network transformation. The carrier is focused on expanding the reach of its mid-band spectrum holdings from 265 million potential customers covered at the end of 2022, to around 300 million people covered by the end of this year.

The carrier is also coming off of peak 5G-related capex spending, with its most recent guidance of that spend tapering down as the year progresses. T-Mobile US late last year also sparked a Cisco-powered cloud-native 5G core gateway that expands the flexibility of the carrier’s 5G standalone (SA) core to support all of its 5G and 4G LTE traffic.

T-Mobile US’ technology executive announcement was quickly followed by a widespread network outage that Ray via Twitter explained was due to a third-party “fiber interruption.” The interruption impacted T-Mobile US voice, messaging, and data traffic across portions of its network.