Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
So T-Mobile USA announced it is going to build a 3G network … and I’m as shocked as you are. I mean, that certainly came out of left field. And get this: They’re going to use W-CDMA technology, not EV-DO or WiMAX or Bluetooth something. I’m just stunned.
T-Mobile USA said it will begin deploying UMTS technology across its network beginning early next year, just weeks after it plunked down $4.2 billion for new spectrum in the FCC’s auction.
T-Mobile USA said it plans to spend around $2.6 billion installing UMTS technology across its network during the next three years. Commercial rollouts are expected to begin in mid-2007 and be complete by 2009. The carrier said it already has rolled out about half of the necessary UMTS equipment for New York.
The best part about all this is the spin: T-Mobile USA explained that—even though it’s almost three years behind the rest of the nation’s carriers—it’s actually making an excellent strategic move. See, it’s because 3G equipment is really cheap now, not like it was three years ago. (It’s only going to cost them $9 billion to deploy 3G. Only.)
“I would be shocked if any other company has anything close in terms of cost of deployment and cost of equipment,” said Robert Dotson, T-Mobile USA’s CEO.
You go Robert! I employ this same sort of spin in my personal life. During my frequent bouts of unemployment, I usually explain to the repo men that I’m simply “waiting for the market to improve to take full benefit of cost of job deployment and cost of job equipment.” I know, I know, I didn’t graduate from Harvard Business School, but it sure sounds like I did!
Anyway, I’m very excited for a fourth nationwide 3G network (or fifth, if you could Sprint Nextel’s planned WiMAX network). Seeing as how everyone I know simply loves to Google stock quotes on their phone, I’m sure another 3G network is warranted.
My favorite part is that T-Mobile USA’s 3G network is going to be “HSDPA ready.” Meaning, it will be ready for Cingular to actually launch HSDPA, and then see how it goes. I think that’s more of the “cost of deployment and cost of equipment” in action.
And my other favorite part? The spectrum that T-Mobile is going to use for 3G is at 1700 MHz and 2100 MHz—which means that its equipment and handset vendors are going to have to build special stuff to take this somewhat unique spectrum into account. I’m sure that won’t drive the cost up at all, though. Yup, cost savings abound.
But really, maybe T-Mobile USA is onto something. In the second quarter, T-Mobile USA (which operates a 2.5G EDGE network) added 507,000 postpay customers, while Sprint Nextel (which is in the midst of deploying a 3G EV-DO network) added 210,000 postpay customers.
I’m just going to assume 3G is worth the billions people are spending on it, but perhaps it’s not the single most important factor for wireless success. I’m just saying, is all. Then again, I do like watching CSPAN2 on my phone…
O.K.! Enough of that. Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. Wanna check out other Worst of the Week entries? Click here for past columns. And now, some extras:
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Amp’d Mobile is offering new family plans that are way cheaper than the family plans from Verizon Wireless. Am I the only one who can’t understand this whole MVNO thing? How can Amp’d rent Verizon’s network and then offer services at a cheaper price than Verizon? And doesn’t this make Verizon kinda mad? I would be mad if someone undercut my offerings using my own network. Of course, as a consumer (and a dirt poor one at that) my reaction is: Go Amp’d!
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Sprint Nextel raised the price of its text messages from 10 cents to 15 cents, which means that—because the carrier changed its service pricing—Sprint Nextel subscribers can cancel their contracts without incurring early-termination fees. Sprint Nextel said it increased the price “due to a rise in the cost of offering the service.” You read that right—the price for mobile TV is falling but the cost of text messaging is on the rise.
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Google acquired YouTube, and they’re calling the combination “GoogTube.” I wish we could get funny-name combinations like this in wireless, but “Crown Signal” or “Global Castle” just doesn’t cut it. The best I ever heard in wireless was “Sextel” (Sprint and Nextel).
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Hiptop vendor Danger announced Australian carrier Telstra will sell its neato, swivel-screen gadget. All you Australian Paris Hilton fans, rejoice! Right now I’m picturing Crocodile Dundee with a Hiptop, and I am happy.
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Hook Mobile introduced a new cross-carrier MMS application that allows players to collect and trade “mobile trading cards” of contestants from the CBS reality TV show “Survivor.” And I thought collecting baseball cards was a waste of time … Yikes. Of course, if Hook Mobile were to offer a “mobile trading card” game for “Magic: The Gathering,” I would be all over that, yo. And if you ever want to challenge me to a “Magic: The Gathering” tournament I will totally rule your world, yo, because my “Magic: The Gathering” deck is the bomb! Fo shizzle.
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Samsung is going to sell a 10-megapixel camera phone. I think I speak for everyone when I say: Finally! Sheesh, could it have taken them any longer to release a 10-megapixel camera phone? I mean, I’ve been waiting for a 10-megapixel camera phone for, like, ever. My 9-megapixel camera phone just seems so obsolete.
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Check out this press release from NeoMedia Technologies. In it, the company said that its mobile marketing subsidiary 12snap “has started the second half of fiscal 2006 with ‘solid revenues from major client customers,’ both involved in national soccer promotional programs delivered via mobile phones.” Now, the strange part about this press release is that they put the phrase “solid revenues from major client customers,” in quotes—I didn’t add them. Why would you add quotes to your own press release? I think they did it because 12snap is “awesome.”
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Cingular is hosting a “Cingular Messaging Awards” event, where wireless users can send in witty text messages, funny self portraits or videos of their hottest dance moves to win. (Win what? I have no idea.) I would very much like to submit my entries for each of these categories, but I suspect all the things that I want send in to this event are probably too … inappropriate. But isn’t that always the case with stuff that’s really funny?
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And finally, Mr. T has a show for cell phones. You know that the mobile TV market has officially matured when B.A. Baracus himself graces the screen. FOOL!
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at mdano@crain.com.
