Hello! And welcome to our Friday 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 RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
I spent the past week at the Competitive Carriers Association’s “spring fling” in San Antonio, where just steps away from the Alamo, wireless carriers outside the “big two” were busy stating their claims that the current rules governing their fight against the two dominate players was indeed a cause as lost as that faced by James Bowie, William Travis and David Crockett.
The case was made by carriers large (relatively) and small, with most claiming that the market control being exerted by Verizon and AT&T across the wireless space was indeed too much control, making it difficult for the other 100-odd carriers serving the approximately 100 million customers not schlepping around mobile devices sporting Verizon’s red or AT&T’s blue.
Perhaps the loudest call was made by Softbank/Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son, who took to the stage during a keynote address to re-iterate his previous claims about the evils of the big two and how something needed to be done to stop them. Son’s argument, which echoed one he had made earlier this month in front of the Washington, D.C. Chamber of Commerce, included graphs and charts showing just how dominant Verizon and AT&T were and how they were gobbling up all the customers and money.
(Not for all those looking to make graphs and charts: stick with “pie” in shape and decorate liberally with “hockey sticks.”)
The charts and arguments proved compelling, especially to a packed house of wireless carriers having to share the sliver of leftovers. That is of course not counting those pesky up-starts over at T-Mobile US, who while being avid members of the CCA community, seem to have found a soft spot at which to attack its larger rivals.
You see, Son’s arguments seemed to indicate that the dominance of the big two extended all the way down to customer selection, something that in the big picture is indeed true, but not the case when looked at over the past 12 months. Since going hog-wild with its “un-carrier” strategy in early 2013, T-Mobile US has been adding customers as fast as Verizon Wireless and out-pacing AT&T Mobility. We won’t even bring Sprint up in this argument as it would seem that a lot of the growth generated by non-Sprint carriers is coming at the expense of Sprint.
I understand that the financial contributions of those new T-Mobile US customers may fall short of those being added by its larger rivals, but at least when it comes to the ability to compete for subscribers, T-Mobile US has seemingly found a way.
Not that everyone can’t be creative in finding a way to compete, as creativity has been the marketing mantra for cash-strapped rural carriers for years. However, for a carrier like Sprint, which is apparently now under the stewardship of someone with so much money he is willing to pay for other carriers to deploy services, marketing creativity has seemingly left the building. Sure, I enjoy the butchering of “family” and “friends” into the grammatically challenged “framily,” but I a guessing it will take more than word play for Sprint to re-gain its mojo.
While the battle put up by those inside of the Alamo ultimately proved futile, at least they went to the well for ideas that prolonged the fight and made the eventual victors work hard for their success. My not requested advice for Sprint: Remember the Alamo!
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–I am only going to assume that the powers-that-be at Verizon and AT&T had some red-hot ears this week as the assembled mass of attendees at the CCA event in were near universal in their vocal disdain for anything Verizon/AT&T.
There did not seem to be a keynote address, panel discussion or awkward restroom encounter that did not involve someone bad-mouthing the big two at every turn. You would think that AT&T, Verizon or both had kicked the dogs of every CCA conference attendee, before sticking a shiv in their truck tire and running off with all their beer.
Now, I have been attending CCA/RCA events for longer than I care to remember, but cannot remember there being so much anti-Verizon/AT&T venom spewed than what I heard this past week. Not that there is anything wrong with some heated commentary on rivals, and in fact the pointed commentary added a nice bit of spice to go along with the San Antonio surroundings.
However, such heated commentary must make for some quiet elevator rides when these executives meet up at whatever fancy-pants helipads, private islands or secret volcano lairs telecom executives meet up at.
–Another week, another Sprint network executive shown the door.
Not that there is ever anything good that comes from someone being asked to leave their job, and also not knowing if that was the case with this week’s departure of former VP of network technology development and integration Iyad Tarazi, but the purging at Sprint is probably not a surprise.
Tarazi’s departure followed that of Bob Azzi, former SVP of networks at Sprint, who left earlier this month, and president of network operations Steve Elfman, who is set to leave at some point in the future.
With strong new ownership in place and a network that has managed to flounder at nearly every turn, change probably needed to come at Sprint. However, unlike in the sports world where an under-performing team often sacrifices its head coach as its harder to fire one than many, Sprint appears to be clearing shop from just below the top rank.
When Masayoshi Son acquired a controlling stake in Sprint last summer, CEO Dan Hesse was kept on as CEO of Sprint, despite an up-and-down five years at the helm of the carrier. Hesse did inherit a ship in S.S. Minnow-like levels of dis-repair, but it’s hard to say he has managed to patch up the holes while also maintaining the ship afloat. A difficult task no matter how poor the analogy.
I can only guess that unless things at Sprint turn around in a jiffy, there may be a hold on signing up current executives to new company car leases.
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