John Legere
will serve as the new TMobile CEO, so the possibility exists that he’ll
maintain the love of pink—make that magenta.
Of course, it will be harder for
the new TMobile to frame itself as iconoclastic outlier. Not much innovation in this tag line: “we’ve
held the line on prices for THREE years.” Mr. Legere may continue to ride his
TMobile motorcycle around town, but he’ll have lots of deposits to make at his
bank.
Over at
Dish, the deal gives Charlie Ergen a 4-year extension to “fish or cut bait”
with even more spectrum. I’ll add to my
prediction that he’ll devote an inordinate amount of that time raising a ruckus
on the proper interpretation of his commitments as the fourth carrier
replacement for Sprint. Why spend time
competing in the marketplace when you can complain about the plain meaning of
the sweetheart deal he negotiated? He’ll
never be satisfied, particularly when he can blame everyone—including the other
carriers—for any failure to meet the terms of the deal.
Bear in mind that Dish’s quick
entry into the marketplace will be through resale of the other carriers’
capacity. Mr. Ergen has a ready- made complaint that his competitors did not
offer him generous enough terms for Dish to offer what Sprint previously did.
Bottom line: it’s money that
matters, and the investment of millions by Sprint and TMobile will pay off handsomely
at the expense of anyone who uses a cellphone.
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