Sprint boss wins applause as he challenges US phone mega-merger
Not many people are coming forward to back the plan for a giant US telecoms merger between AT&T and T-mobile , wondering where the benefit is for consumers. Now the Sprint boss who was left out has his say.
Innovation will be stifled and consumers will suffer if the plan for the mega-merger between American phone companies AT&T and T-Mobile goes ahead. That's the view of Dan Hesse, chief executive of Nextel-Sprint, speaking at a roundtable discussion at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Orange County, California.
Mr Hesse might be said to have an axe to grind. His firm Sprint, America's No 4, was itself widely thought to be contemplating a deal with T-mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom.
AT&T and Verizon, the present No1 will control 79% of the market if the deal goes through - except AT&T would be the kingpin, with T-mobile giving it a total of 129 million customers.There was applause as Mr Hesse said, "I do have concerns too much power would be in the hands of two."
AT&T grabbed the spotlight from the CTIA show by announcing on Sunday its plan to acquire T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom in a $39 billion deal.
Today, AT&T's mobility chief executive, Ralph de la Vega, was on stage with Mr. Hesse and Verizon CEO Daniel Mead. T-Mobile boss Philipp Humm had pulled out of the round table after the deal was announced.
Mr. De la Vega defended the deal; it would improve coverage, address the spectrum crunch, and bring mobile broadband to more people, he said.
Verizon's Mr. Mead said he didn't look at buying T-Mobile USA and wasn't interested in buying Sprint.
"We're observing what's going on," he said later. The company, a joint venture with the Vodafone Group, did not want to be distracted from its goal of being the most profitable U.S. wireless operator.Mr Mead said it was unclear whether the merger would go through, and was reluctant to make a prediction.