The Great Carrier Realignment: Verizon, Google, T-Mobile, AT&T, Motorola, SK Telecom

[j__1]

I’m trying to wrap my head around the series of announcements and developments this last week that will change the face of cell service, and notably wireless broadband in the U.S.: In short succession, you have:

• The FCC agreeing to some of Google et al.’s requests for open access requirements in the upcoming 700 MHz auction
• Gary Forsee resigning, having been forced out as Sprint Nextel’s head over merger execution and customer retention problems
• Google and its dozens of partners (including T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel as carriers and Motorola as a handset maker and Qualcomm as a fundamental technology provider and chipmaker) announcing the open Android platform
• Verizon ostensibly opening up its network to a much cheaper and easier way to offer any device and any service, which would mean it is dropping its complaints over the 700 MHz auction terms
• Verizon committing to LTE (Long Term Evolution), a form of advanced GSM for their fourth-generation network instead of a CDMA-based Qualcomm offering (AT&T and T-Mobile will almost certainly use LTE)
• SK Telecom (majority owner of MVNO Helio, which buys service from Sprint Nextel, and deployer of WiMax in South Korea) making a quickly rebuffed $5b investment offer with a private equity partner to reinstall Nextel’s former CEO as Sprint Nextel’s next CEO
• Motorola’s chief Ed Zander resigning after never recapturing the resurgence in the company’s fortune kicked off by the Razor phone
• Google committing to making a bid in the 700 MHz auction (Dec. 3 is the deadline to declare an intent to bid); that plus Verizon’s change of heart means that AT&T, Google, and Verizon will likely all be bidding on the national C Block licenses
• Various moves that are making it easier to unlock phones and break contracts without paying the full cancellation fee

http://wifinetnews.com/archives/008066.html

[Nwahs]

This is definitely a good article. It does a great job pointing out what is going on...and how big it is. A year ago...I'm sure we never could have guessed that any of this would have happened.