Sprint Cries ‘Foul’ Over AT&T’s $39B Acquisition of T-Mobile
The clock is ticking for Sprint, the only U.S. carrier that hasn’t established a way to eventually offer the iPhone. First, there was only AT&T, then Verizon and now potentially T-Mobile USA, if a $39 billion acquisition by AT&T is approved. Although T-Mobile says it won’t offer the Apple handset for around 12 months, Sprint is already calling ‘foul.’
“The merger would result in a wireless industry dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically-integrated companies that control almost 80 percent of the U.S. wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete,” Sprint bemoaned in a statement.
However, Sprint isn’t standing still. What’s the best way to compete with iPhone-enabled rivals? Google, of course. So it came as little surprise when Sprint announced it will team up with the Mountain View, Calif. Internet giant to offer subscribers Google voice for the home and office phone, along with the computer.
Because Google Voice is a drop-in replacement of Sprint voicemail, the carrier’s subscribers won’t need another app.
Still unheard from is Google, itself. Sprint becomes the last iPhone-free carrier in the United States. Uncertain is how the iPhone’s introduction has hurt sales of Android-based smartphones and whether that potential erosion will spread with word of AT&T and T-Mobile combining forces.
[All Things Digital, 9 to 5 Mac, Fortune]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
