roamer1
sticking it out at you
join:2001-03-24
Atlanta, GA
clubs:
1 edit | Auction 66
About the only places where anyone besides the major wireless carriers are getting anything are rural areas, and in most cases the companies getting the rural areas are small ILECs who want to do wireless (in lieu of or in addition to DSL) in-region or expand out-of-region somewhat.
IMO, the satellite companies pulled out far too early. I don't think not being able to compete with more than TV will kill them off, but with phone companies moving to IPTV and the satellite companies essentially unable to do VoD on their own, it will certainly hurt (DirecTV and Dish rely on partnerships with phone companies for a lot of their business.)
Of the existing wireless carriers:
T-Mobile has by far the most to gain or lose from this auction -- compared to the other three major wireless carriers, T-Mobile has relatively little spectrum in most markets (as little as 10 MHz in a few) and desperately needs more to catch up with the others data-wise.
Verizon Wireless could use more spectrum, but isn't truly desperate for it in most places; Sprint Nextel (who is bidding jointly with the major cable companies) is in a similar position.
Cingular participating in the auction as extensively as they are strikes me as a bit strange, as they are awash in spectrum in most areas (the only significant exceptions being the handful of markets where only the original Cingular or only the former AT&T Wireless had operations, such as Denver, Minneapolis, and Panama City, FL.) It almost seems as if Cingular may be trying to hoard spectrum so that T-Mobile and others can't get it...
Alltel sitting things out also strikes me as strange -- they still have huge gaps in their footprint, namely the Northeast (where all they serve is a single county in Connecticut that Cingular had to sell when they bought AT&T Wireless), where they are stuck roaming on other carriers. They seem to want to go beyond "mostly rural super-regional" and go truly national, but how in the world can they do it without anything in the Northeast? The opinion of many is that Alltel will buy out other carriers to get what they need -- Metro PCS, whose operating markets are close to or adjoin Alltel service areas and who has also been bidding for a Northeast REA license, seems like a particular target.
-SC
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"it seems like all you ever buy is Abercrombie and cell phones" --a friend |
