Tech

This Isn’t Your Older Brother’s Wireless Merger

Standing in line for the first iPhone ten years ago, it would have been impossible to predict the current state of play in the world of communications. More accurately, you could have tried, but you would have been very wrong. Verizon now owns Yahoo! and AOL. AT&T has acquired DirecTV and is now the country’s largest television provider. Comcast and Charter are launching their own mobile phone plans, while Google operates a high-speed fiber optic network in major cities across America.

To keep pace with customer demand for mobile connectivity and novel content, companies are joining across sector lines to form unlikely partnerships. Old boundaries are dissolving, as industries like cable, telecom and media converge. As policymakers evaluate the T-Mobile/Sprint merger announced this week, they’ll need to rethink the old, segmented definitions of industries to promote public interest in a new competitive world.

The combination will give T-Mobile the resources to deploy new technology – think 5G – faster and more broadly than ever before. These investments will take consumers far beyond the benefits of wireless speed and reliability – to high-speed home broadband, new streaming services and internet of things connectivity. This is particularly true in rural communities, where many Americans continue to be limited in their choice of wireless provider, broadband operator, or both.

T-Mobile and Sprint have highly complementary spectrum portfolios that will position the combined company to deliver America’s first nationwide 5G network, and press other providers to rapidly invest more in their own 5G networks. 5G will vastly improve high-speed internet access and quality in the United States, particularly in underserved communities where Wi-Fi has struggled to bridge the digital divide. Additionally, faster mobile speeds will accelerate the adoption of internet of things technologies, creating an ecosystem of connected devices to satisfy consumer demand for instant and constant connection.

With greater scale, T-Mobile will also have lower costs, economic efficiencies and capacity to reach more customers. And with a history of leading the industry in rolling out new ideas, the new T-Mobile will continue to accelerate change in a landscape that becomes more crowded every day. Comcast and Charter are becoming players, leveraging their distribution networks and massive subscriber bases. Google’s development of Google Fi and Facebook’s work on drone-based mobile broadband further underscore just how crowded this space is becoming.

Cable and mobile companies are also making investments in content to entice and retain consumers. Comcast’s acquisition of NBCUniversal, Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo! and AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV all epitomize the evolution toward vertical integration that is likely to continue as consumers’ preference for mobile services disrupts traditional services. In fact, phone and tablet internet use surpassed desktop usage in 2016, as consumers now use mobile devices as their primary gateway to the internet.

Consumers have responded with enthusiasm to innovations in mobile internet delivery, and history shows that when companies innovate and respond freely to consumer preferences, everyone benefits. It is critical that policymakers understand the industry changes brought about by internet mobility, and how the resulting convergence can drive innovation.

Promoting the public interest in this new environment will require a reconsideration of old assumptions about competition and consumer benefits. Competitive sets like the “Big Four” in wireless and distinctions like “wired vs. wireless” are increasingly irrelevant to the future of the industry. By forcing once separate industries to compete across a broader playing field, convergence is intensifying competition in mobile access and content delivery, with the potential to accelerate innovation, IT infrastructure development, and U.S. economic growth.

Still not convinced the wireless world has changed much in 10 years? Consider this: In 2009, the market leader in mobile platforms was…Blackberry.

 

John Sununu, who served as U.S. senator for New Hampshire from 2003 to 2009 and as representative for New Hampshire’s 1st District from 1997 to 2003, served as a director at Time Warner Cable from 2009-2016 and is currently a consultant to T-Mobile.

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