Leap Wireless, one of America’s smaller operators with roughly 5.8 million subscribers, or just a tad more than the number of people living in Finland, has thrown their two cents about AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile out into the open. Doug Hutcheson, President and CEO of Leap and Cricket, says in a press release:
“We oppose the proposed acquisition. A competitive marketplace is critical to wireless innovation — and small and mid-sized carriers such as Cricket are driving that innovation. The proposed acquisition would eliminate T-Mobile as an important nationwide competitor in the industry. It also raises problems of spectrum concentration and impaired access to spectrum by competitive carriers; undercuts access to wholesale voice and data roaming services; and threatens to foster reduced device availability and reduced interoperability of wireless networks and devices, among many other issues. Those results are not in the public interest.”
Coincidentally, a House Judiciary subcommittee has scheduled a hearing to take place today to discuss the planned merger. No doubt a lot of the smaller guys are shaking in their boots right now if this deal goes through. Even Martin Cooper, the guy who invented the mobile phone, says that this deal stinks. We hope AT&T gets told to back off, that T-Mobile gets the money and spectrum AT&T promised to give them if the deal falls through, and that with that money they complete their nationwide 42 Mbps HSPA+ network and start rolling out LTE. It’s a bit much, but frankly having only operator in America using GSM technology just spells trouble. AT&T is notorious for botching up their devices with “crapware” and limiting functionality such as Bluetooth file transfers and tethering that the manufacture intended the device to have in the first place.
Expect the next few weeks to be exciting as the government tackles what’s probably the most important decision in the mobile industry in ages.