Topic: Carriers

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    Essential Phone Will be Exclusive to Sprint in US, Further Limiting Appeal (Jun 12, 2017)

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    T-Mobile, DISH and Comcast Among Big Winners in FCC Spectrum Auction (Apr 13, 2017)

    The FCC recently held an auction of spectrum to be freed up by broadcasters and made available for wireless services, in the 600MHz band, which is well suited to long-distance and in-building coverage. T-Mobile was the only wireless carrier among the big winners, with the two largest carriers having cleaned up in the previous auction, and a cash-constrained Sprint sitting this one out too (AT&T did win licenses worth $900 million, but T-Mobile spent $8 billion). The other big bidders were DISH, which spent nearly as much as T-Mobile ($6.2 billion), and Comcast, which recently announced its wireless service based on Verizon’s network but could eventually launch its own network. Though T-Mobile has always crowed about how much spectrum it has per customer, that was always more of a reflection of its smaller number of customers rather than a massive spectrum trove, and it lacked low-band spectrum. It has now made big strides in solving that problem, and plans to put at least some of that spectrum to work right away (though much of it will be unavailable for several years while the broadcasters go through the process of vacating it, with much of that unavailable spectrum covering the densest markets). It’s also worth noting that no phones in the US today support the 600MHz band – that support is likely to come early next year with a new Qualcomm modem, so even if T-Mobile does put a third or so of its new spectrum to work this year, it won’t do anyone any good until then. So, if you’re a US wireless customer today, none of this makes any difference for now, and it’ll only make much of a difference a year or several down the line if you’re a T-Mobile customer (or in limited cases an AT&T customer). Or as and when Comcast and DISH decide to put that spectrum to use.

    via CNET (FCC info here)

    T-Mobile Delivers Strong Customer Growth Once Again | T-Mobile (Jan 5, 2017)

    The headline here is strong growth, though compared to last year’s results there aren’t huge differences. Total branded net adds were actually down slightly, largely because of lower mobile broadband (tablet) net adds, while wholesale adds were up slightly (these may both have been caused by a shift of subscribers from retail to wholesale last quarter in connection with a Walmart deal), and overall net adds were up slightly too. As the traditional phone market slows down, it’s going to be tougher for T-Mobile to keep driving growth in net adds, and it doesn’t yet seem to have cracked new categories beyond phones, which continues to be my main concern about its longer term prospects.

    via Press Release | T-Mobile