• Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Contact
  • Log in
CCS Insight
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who We Serve
    • What We Do
    • Jobs
  • Research Areas
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Press
    • Company News
    • Media Coverage
    • Media Resources
  • Try for free
  • Menu Menu
  • About
  • Research Areas
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Press
  • Contact Us

The Incredible, Inevitable Number Three

Is a Sprint–T-Mobile Combo Written in the Stars?

Uncarrier_logo

It’s time for US mobile market players to mentally prepare for a different set of dynamics — for an “un-carrier” to be third-placed.

The economic rule of three is a strong undercurrent affecting any competitive landscape, whether looking at game consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, Wii), browsers (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox) or the US car market (GM, Ford, Chrysler). In most mature markets, competitors grow and combine over time until three mainstream companies are left standing.

Sprint’s subscriber numbers would be much closer to those of Verizon and AT&T should the potential bid for T-Mobile USA be successful. Sprint and T-Mobile have a combined total of about 100 million subscribers in the US, compared with Verizon’s 122 million and AT&T’s 115 million. This would suggest a levelled three-way market, in which any competitor would have the resources to match the others, move for move. This will be used as a core argument by supporters of the deal.

However, combining the third- and fourth-largest American wireless carriers wouldn’t be a straightforward or painless process. The two have an assortment of spectrum, brands and stores, have historically used different air interface technologies and have rather different corporate personalities. T-Mobile’s Un-carrier strategy under CEO John Legere contrasts with the outwardly calm demeanour of Sprint under CEO Dan Hesse. However, both executives know the market is changing in ways greater than either could handle independently. Service providers across the US are offering quad-play services and preparing to enter adjacent markets, and Sprint will need to scale up to keep up.

The rule of three is a market observation, not a law of physics — there are no certainties, just trends. The market is evolving, and cellular access is just one part of a general service package. CCS Insight believes that Sprint and T-Mobile will shuffle pieces around and divest assets in a bid to convince regulators of the merits of the deal, and we’d be surprised if we didn’t see further consolidation of telecom providers in the US.

Peter Bryer
Written by: Peter Bryer
Posted on 23/06/2014
Share this Insight
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
2 replies
  1. 186k
    186k says:
    23 June 2014 at 17:14

    "The rule of three…not a law of physics"…never! The thing about physics laws is that they are unbreakable. Your little non-rule doesn’t even make it beyond the confines of your article – US car market certainly isn’t only the playground of US manufacturers

    Reply
  2. Ben Wood (CCS Insight)
    Ben Wood (CCS Insight) says:
    24 June 2014 at 16:31

    The rule of three typically applies in mature markets where there are three major players that control the lion’s share of the market. However we totally accept there will be lots of other players too – its just they tend to have to fight for what’s left of the market – and that often means going after a niche segment.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to our blog

Make sure you don’t miss out on our fresh insights on topical news in the connected world.

Research areas

  • 5G Networks
  • Agenda Setters
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Business IoT
  • Developer Trends
  • Devices
  • Insight
  • Mobile Phones
  • Mobile World Congress (MWC)
  • Semiconductors
  • Services
  • Smart Home
  • Teardowns
  • Telecom Operators
  • Uncategorized
  • VR and AR
  • Wearables
  • Workplace Transformation

Links

  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Follow us

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

© 2020 CCS Insight

It’s Still Early for Smartphones in India The Space Race. Storage Wars Heat Up.
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Accept settingsHide notification only