why not??? Delta Airlines just bought an oil refinery...
Posted on 05/01/2012 2:17:51 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Apple (AAPL) soon might bypass AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless, co-owned by Verizon Communications (T) and Vodafone (VOD), to offer its own mobile wireless service directly to customers, according to an industry observer.
Veteran wireless industry strategist Whitey Bluestein made the bold prediction while speaking at the Informa MVNO Industry Summit in Barcelona, Spain, according to BGR. Apple has the distribution channels and customer base, with more than 250 million credit card numbers on file for iTunes users, to make the move, Bluestein said.
But to do so, Apple itself would have to subsidize its iPhone for customers, Bluestein says. Apple becoming a direct mobile service provider would provide a hedge against carriers trying to reduce how much they subsidize iPhones for subscribers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
What is Apple going to use for cell phone TOWERS?
I don’t see why not. They have enough cash on hand to blanket the country with cell towers, and barely miss it.
buy blocks of air time from existing carriers like prepaid carriers do.
They can lease time on existing towers. All the cellular providers do it.
They would just be reselling spectrum owned by either Verizon or AT&T.
I can see how they could lease bandwidth in theory. I just can’t imagine they they could get enough space on enough towers to establish a viable business. That implies both that there is a lot of excess capacity there now, AND that the other telco companies would not try to freeze them out.
They don’t really get ‘space on towers’, all they would need to do is resell spectrum and numbers. It is how a lot of carriers like Virgin Mobile work. They basically buy blocks of numbers (entire NPA/NXX sets) from the carrier that owns the spectrum and they turn around and sell it to the public. To the average consumer, they have no idea who owns the spectrum the call is made on, they just know who bills them.
(it is a little more complicated than that but that gives you an idea how it works).
8 posts so far and no one has complained about Apple becoming a monopoly?
why not??? Delta Airlines just bought an oil refinery...
You’d think. But the prepaid phones are far cheaper than contracted ones. And I have yet to see any of the pre-paid companies kicked off the big 3’s networks.
Virgin also has a pre-paid data plan on Sprints network that is half the cost of sprints. Yet sprint allows them to keep buying blocks of data.
don’t you have to pay full retail for a prepaid phone, as opposed to getting half or more off for getting a contract?
seems like it’d be an even trade off in the end.
If you want the latest and greatest yes, you pay a high price for the phone.
However, if you want a phone that might be a model or two old, they are free if you watch for deals.
Point in case. I finely broke down and bought a phone for our child since she walks to schools now (busing cut)
I was able to get a smart phone with full qwerty keyboard for 59.99 shipped. This deal also included a 50 dollar pre-paid credit so the phone it’s self was 9.99.
I have the phone on a very limited plan that just happens to be on the same network as my contracted phone. 5 cents a minute, 2 cents a txt and the internet over the phone network is disabled. (she can still use it on wifi if she wants)
the minutes expire in 6 months unless I “top off” the account with a new prepaid card. I can get cards as low as 5 dollars. By paying 10 dollars a year that original 50 dollars will never expire until used up.
As soon as my contract is done with sprint I am flipping my current EVO 4G to a unlimited prepaid plan for 50 a month. A buddy already did this and is buying the 50 dollar cards off ebay for 38.
My current contract is 80 dollars per month per phone.
So, that is 42 dollars PER MONTH that could be applied to a full price top of the line phone. After a 24 month contract I could have bought 2 full priced 500 dollar phones with what I have saved and still have money left over.
>>>What is Apple going to use for cell phone TOWERS?
They will get network access from AT&T, Verizon, & Tmobile at wholesale prices and resell it. Just like Trackphone, Virgin Mobile, etc. do.
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