Wireless companies like Sprint (NYSE: S) and Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) are ailing. Yet, at the same time, there are several new entrants into the space, such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).
So, what's going on? Well, I had a chance to interview Frank Dickson, who is a wireless expert and the Chief Research Officer at MultiMedia Intelligence.
What's your take on Sprint? Is the industry undergoing some disruptive changes?
We are seeing some disruptive changes on a macro scale. They are not the cause of Sprint's problems though. The problem with Sprint is self-inflicted, much of which finds its roots in the Nextel merger.
What we have seen of late is a huge movement towards cellular operators becoming bandwidth providers. Voice is quickly becoming a commodity application running over their networks. All the major carriers have announced all the voice minutes that you can eat for $99. Sprint one upped with a super buffet of voice, data, and messaging for $99. The constituencies that most hate the term "dumb pipe" are ironically the entities that are driving the bandwidth provision competition as differentiation based on service offering gives way to price competition.
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