T-Mobile US has chosen Jon Freier to assume the COO role vacated by Srini Gopalan, following the latter's elevation to CEO earlier this year.

Freier had previously served as president of the carrier’s consumer group and has spent the best part of two decades at T-Mobile. He also spent more than a decade at Western Wireless, departing shortly after the brand merged with Alltel.

His appointment was confirmed in an SEC filing and will see him lead the executive responsible for driving the brand’s go-to-market operations and technology initiatives, as well as overseeing T-Mobile's overall digital transformation efforts.

The executive shuffle stemmed from Mike Sievert stepping down as CEO in November, with former COO Gopalan stepping in to replace him. The new CEO had only moved to T-Mobile earlier this year, having previously headed Deutsche Telekom's Germany business.

Sievert too also served as T-Mobile US’s COO before taking on its top job.

Freier will now help lead on a brand looking to take advantage of the AI wave, alongside laying the groundwork for 6G.

During a session at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference earlier this week, Gopalan said the operator will look to AI to help drive operational efficiencies and boost next-generation cellular technologies.

“This has been talked about for a while, but with 6G it becomes real,” Gopalan said, adding, “that opens up some fascinating new revenue opportunities. … To have robots actually functioning, to have factories automated … you need a network that can deliver physical AI, a network that's low latency enough, and a network that can process not just bits and bytes, but also tokens.”