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:
When out partying with friends, all it takes is one person to mention that perhaps everyone is spending a bit too much money to bring festivities to a dour conclusion. Sure, we are all spending way, way too much money. But that’s for tomorrow me to deal with. Tonight me wants to act like a broken ATM spewing out money on overpriced drinks!
In the wireless space, no single event draws out the money spending crazy like a spectrum auction. The government is offering up invisible air above any major city? Here’s a billion dollars!
The Federal Communications Commission’s last auction free-for-all witnessed “prudent” companies beholden to bottom-line focused investors throw more than $40 billion into the government’s pot. And, with the FCC now set to auction off potentially even more valuable spectrum in the 600 MHz band, I can only guess the nation’s mints are working overtime printing out new money to handle the event.
Or at least I was hoping that was going to happen, until this week when one of those potential partyers decided that perhaps they would save a few bucks by just drinking free water instead of going for broke on bottle service. That Buzzkillington was Sprint, which apparently thinks the nearly 200 megahertz of spectrum it already controls is enough to handle its expected network load.
Some people.
In a statement, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure noted the carrier’s focus needed to be on “improving its network and market position in the immediate term” and that the carrier “has the spectrum it needs to deploy its network architecture of the future.”
I guess Sprint’s aversion to the 600 megahertz spectrum auctions should not have been much of a surprise seeing as the carrier has avoided direct participation in any auction this century. And, it’s not like the carrier is actually in the financial position to be funding a wild party.
(Of course, I am partially jesting in giving Sprint grief for not wanting to pony up some cash in order to purchase more spectrum. I mean, that was the real reason behind the $35 billion it spent to acquire Nextel, right? All that 2.5 GHz and small sliver of 1.9 GHz spectrum were the real nuggets of gold buried underneath those 15 million high-valued enterprise customers.)
Luckily, it appears that at least two carriers see the “Hangover” potential the 600 MHz auction is set to provide.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told analysts this week that even though the company just spent $18 billion on spectrum in the AWS-3 auction, he touted that instead of “buyers remorse” he had “buyers delight.” Now that’s the sort of person you want to hang around with once the sun goes down.
And, T-Mobile US CEO John Legere recently told an audience of investors that the gung-ho carrier is set to go big when it comes to bidding on 600 MHz spectrum.
“Let’s be clear, we are showing up, we are going to be very aggressive, we do have the balance sheet and we’re preparing for it, and we will scoop up as much as humanly possible,” Legere said. “It will be the biggest mistake any of them ever made, if they don’t show up.”
Now we’re talking! When Legere says he’s going big, I can only assume he is talking in terms of fully bankrupting T-Mobile US, its parent company Deutsche Telekom and anyone else foolish enough to hand him some personal information. (See below.)
So, in the end we can only hope the loss of Sprint as a potential participant in the 600 MHz proceedings will not have a significant impact on the financial absurdity of the proceedings. As there is nothing worse than some common sense when billions of dollars are at stake.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. Here are a couple quick, but satisfying extras:
• The Apple Watch has now been out for some time, and surprisingly people who have bought a version of the device like it and can’t wait to tell you about it.
The shocking findings come from analyst firm 451 Research, which recently released a survey that showed the Watch had “high marks in satisfaction and a strong likelihood of recommending it to others.”
Imagine that, someone who owns an Apple product wanting to tell someone else how awesome that product is.
• Finally, this week’s breach of T-Mobile US consumer data through its vendor Experian is nothing new in the world of data breaches, which seem to pop up every day. And, I am in no way an expert on the expertise needed behind the scenes to prevent such data hacks from happening.
But, I think it’s obvious that whatever method is currently being used to store and secure consumer data is not working. I am sure there are some very smart people working on new ways to store consumer data, but until something more substantial than a wet paper bag is available maybe companies should stop asking for information that if breached puts the consumer at credit risk. There has to be other ways in which companies can ascertain the information they need without having to warehouse consumers’ personal information.
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