Good points, CDMAEng. I didn’t know you were that smart. Seriously, I was gonna post the same comment – that investing in 3G actually costs less and T-Mobile’s lack of it isn’t necessarily a good thing. T-Mobile knew when they built GSM they’d have to convert it eventually. It served them well initially, but now it’s running thin.
[quote=patientlywaiting]They need the capacity if they want to sell more services which they plan to charge more for to increase revenues.[/quote]
PW. Good thoughts on this market. I’m not 100% sure I agree with you, though.
Wireless can continue to grow as people migrate from landline-only to landline+wireless to wireless only. It’s a trend that has been happening for years and still going strong. That trend could continue through the down years, as well. I have had the same mobile phone number since 1993 but about 8 different landline numbers. The mobile allows continuity of connection that landlines don’t.
Right now my monthly bill for 2 landlines is higher than my monthly bill for 3 mobiles !
Even my baby-boomer older brother abandoned his landline a couple years ago.
Also, it appears wireless internet connectivity is here to stay and I suspect that will grow, too. Wondering if we’ll even see a shift from cable-modems to wireless connections like the voice market has done. That will also require more capacity.
What we need is data on landline-to-mobile shift. Sadly, I don’t have any handy and not up to doing a web search.
Also, LTE is on the horizon with carriers lining up to buy it so the vendors who can deliver the goods may survive. NT lost the LTE battle and that was the end.
Certainly people will cut back, but mobile phones did quite well through the bad years in the ’90s, and I think it will survive, though not thrive, for the next few years.
Leap has $1B in cash on the books, roaming agreements with Metro, and are the low-cost leader. That’s gonna help them alot but I’m not buying the stock anytime soon.
