T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm Suddenly Resigns

Philipp Humm, the CEO of T-Mobile USA, has suddenly resigned, according to the company.

Jim Alling, T-Mobile’s COO, will take over his duties while a search is under way.

In a statement, the company said that Humm is going to pursue a career outside of Deutsche Telekom, which owns the U.S. wireless carrier.

Humm will be able to rejoin his family, which stayed back in Europe, when he took the job two years ago.

In a statement, Deutsche Telekom’s Rene Obermann said: “Philipp Humm has given the company some important initiatives over the past years: Under his leadership the cost situation at T-Mobile USA has vastly improved and he led the company during a difficult phase regarding the planned merger with AT&T.”

Indeed, Humm joined the company during a rough time, overseeing what would have been one of the biggest telecom mergers in U.S. history — if the U.S. government hadn’t blocked it. More recently, he conceded in an interview with AllThingsD that “There is no second AT&T deal around.”

Now, as an independent company, the fourth-largest wireless provider is focused on turning itself around, by slowing the number of customer defections and rolling out a new 3G network that can support iPhones sold by AT&T.