SAN ANTONIO – Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son took to the stage during a keynote address at this week’s Competitive Carriers Association event to reiterate his stance that the U.S. wireless market is broken citing the extreme dominance of Verizon and AT&T and appeared willing to put money in the hands of rural carriers in order to strengthen the fight against that dominance.
The tone of Son’s comments were similar to those he made during a speech earlier this month in front of the Washington, D.C. Chamber of Commerce where he pressed the case that the U.S. broadband market was stagnating under the overwhelming control of the nation’s two largest wireless operators. That message resonated well in front of CCA members who operate on a daily basis against Verizon and AT&T.
Building on an announcement made yesterday between Sprint, CCA and NetAmerica, Son said he wanted to partner with rural carriers in order to expand LTE services across the country and provide a more compelling fight against larger rivals. In addition to the spectrum, network and roaming mentioned in the CCA and NetAmerica deals, Son said Sprint would be willing to lend financial support for carriers that were capital expenditure constrained in building out their networks.
In an interview off stage with reporters, Son clarified where the financial support would come from, acknowledging that while Sprint’s negative free cash flow would limit its ability for direct financial support, Son’s Softbank operations could be the source of such funding.
Son argued that the differences in wireless coverage between Sprint and rural carriers – with Sprint targeting large markets and rural operators the spaces in between – made such network partnerships an ideal solution for Sprint and rural carriers in expanding their respective coverage areas.
In looking to gain greater scale, Son was averse to mention T-Mobile US or rumors that Softbank was looking to merge its Sprint operations with the nation’s No. 4 carrier. Son did note that scale was necessary in order to put up a real fight against the big two, and that it would be difficult to gain that scale even through partnerships with CCA’s more than 100 rural carrier members.
Son did name Dish Network as a potential partner, noting that the two companies have been in talks about collaborating on technology and network trials.
“Dish has the satellites and we have the network,” Son said, adding that the two were looking specifically at potentials for a fixed-wireless broadband service. The two companies announced late last year plans to deploy a trial service covering parts of Texas by the middle of this year using TD-LTE technology and Sprint’s deep 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings. That partnership and Son’s comments would suggest that there were no longer any hard feelings following Dish’s challenge to Softbank’s acquisition of Sprint last year.
Dish could also be a more compelling partner after the company recently stocked its spectrum portfolio with an additional 10 megahertz of nationwide spectrum following the recent H-Block spectrum auction.
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