The absolute worst part of buying an iPhone every year is having to deal with AT&T and Verizon in order to qualify for Apple’s latest device. That could soon be a thing of the past, though, as Apple is looking to launch its own wireless network so users wouldn’t have to deal with traditional carriers any longer.
Apple is in talks to launch a mobile virtual network operator service, or MVNO, in the United States and Europe, reports Business Insider. Sources close to Apple say the company is testing an MVNO service in the U.S. privately and is in talks with European telecoms to bring the service across the pond.
There were rumors that Apple planned to become an MVNO in the early years of the iPhone, but none of them panned out, so take this new information with considerable skepticism. While Apple might be testing an MVNO service, there’s no guarantee if it will launch soon, if ever.
Should Apple decide to pull the trigger on becoming an MVNO, iPhone users would pay Apple directly for all data, calls and texts. The groundwork for such an MVNO has already been laid by Apple’s new smart SIM that switches between carriers to find the best sources.
According to the report, it could take Apple five years to launch the service. Apple has been in talks with telecoms for years about its ambitions to create an MVNO; rival Google is already testing its MVNO service, called Project Fi, that’s exclusively for Nexus 6 users.
Source: Business Insider
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
10 responses to “Apple is in talks to become a wireless carrier”
Give me unlimited data at a great price and I am there.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Given how often the cloud services that Apple has go down, I’m highly skeptical if this does come to fruition.
Should have done it ages ago when the brought the iPhone out, but just like Apple Music they had their heads up their arse’s.
For what I pay ATT for all my family’s devices, I’m embarrassed to say how much. If they could drop the price and make the choosing of services simpler I’d be very interested. ATT sends me a throttling notice every month because of my Unlimited ( actually limited due to throttling ) Data usage. F++K ATT
I got a T-Mobile promo for two lines of unlimited for $100. They never b**ch at me, even if I use 26GB, but I’ll be lucky if I have service in the oddest of places.. AT&T wasn’t perfect either, but I think it was a bit better..
If there is any truth to this, betcha it has nothing to do with this and everything to do with Apple TV and Apple Music.
Give us unlimited data at a good price, and allow us to use the built-in tether function at no additional cost! And I’ll jump on that, how I jumped from a Palm Treo to the iPhone.
Hard to get unlimited data these days, even 02, Orange, Vodafone stopped it, come on Apple
This smacks of desperation. So is this a network just for iPhones? Yeah. Good luck with that.