Less than a month ago, I wrote a column about how the recent lull in wireless activity (mergers, etc.) was just the calm before the storm.
Boom! Did you hear the thunder?
What a week! Repercussions from wireless carrier consolidation reverberated throughout the industry, affecting wireless suppliers and others associated with the space.
Verizon Communications Inc. will get MCI Inc. after several one-ups-manships with Qwest. The Verizon-MCI alliance and the SBC-AT&T wireline marriage set the stage for two large telecom companies controlling much of the local and long-distance markets. And Verizon and SBC also dominate the wireless space, although each has partners with significant minority interests. Now people are wondering whether these telecom behemoths will raise rates, which could spark quicker VoIP deployments.
Boom!
The tower sector finally consolidated when American Tower Corp. picked up SpectraSite Inc. Merging the No. 1 and No. 3 independent tower players will create a mega-tower company that can offer more than 20,000 sites in the United States. Crown Castle, the No. 2 independent tower company, manages or owns about 10,000 sites in the country.
Boom!
Meanwhile, Ericsson announced it was basically giving up all hope of landing future CDMA2000 contracts and will focus on where it believes most of the global market is heading-to W-CDMA-leaving Nortel, Lucent and others to duke it out in CDMA2000.
Boom!
Across the pond, Marconi ceded that the loss of important business from BT forced the company to refocus its entire business, but industry watchers are skeptical of how that can be done.
Boom! (And ouch.)
In addition, in a much-anticipated move, Siemens confirmed a few weeks ago it would exit its flailing handset business. The company said the Siemens-brand phones would remain, but again, that feels like an empty promise since the company seems to have trouble just finding a buyer for the business.
Boom!
The wireless industry will be stronger in the long run as these vendors focus on their core competencies.
But the short-term pain involved-job loss, strategic changes and the general depression that comes when a business plan fails-is reminiscent of the blood letting from a few years ago.
