

Apple to crush carriers, become direct service provider - kemper
http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/01/apple-mobile-carrier/

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trotsky
It's very hard to imagine Apple as a traditional MVNO where their brand would
take all the hits for network quality and yet have little to no ability to
impact things on the engineering side. There is a reason that there aren't
premium MVNO's.

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maratd
Bingo. And the probability of Apple building their own wireless network is
pretty close to zero.

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duskwuff
Especially since that isn't the sort of business they tend to get into anyway.
Apple hasn't become a record label either, despite having been involved with
the music industry rather longer. Ultimately, being a mobile network operator
simply doesn't give Apple the opportunity to provide a superior product in the
same kind of way that building hardware/software does, so I strongly doubt
they'd do it.

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ianterrell
Filed under, "I'll believe it when I see it."

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aaronsw
And where are they supposed to get all the towers? That's a multi-year
construction project and, if they try it, they'll alienate their existing
carrier partners.

Now maybe Apple thinks they can afford to do that, but it seems risky.

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danilocampos
> And where are they supposed to get all the towers?

They aren't.

> Bluestein said while speaking at the Informa MVNO Industry Summit in
> Barcelona.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operator>

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hedgehog
Going MVNO would put them in the awkward position of competing with their own
suppliers. Then again they're in this situation with Samsung and it hasn't
been fatal yet. The one thing that makes this interesting to me is that they
are now shipping handsets that will work on multiple carriers in almost every
market. This would let Apple brand the service as their own but pit the
carriers against each other behind the scenes to get the best deal on
connectivity. A customer's phone might switch networks from hour to hour and
they'd still pay the same bill and see an Apple logo in the upper left.

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myko
If this were to happen I might consider getting an iPhone again. I'd miss my
Nexus but the service providers available now in the US are terrible.

But yeah this doesn't seem very likely.

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itg
Why didn't you include the "expert says" part when submitting the article?
Especially one that has no proven track record. That changes the entire tone
of this link-bait headline.

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ChuckMcM
_"Apple has the distribution channels, digital content portfolio and customer
base to make the move, Bluestein says, and it also has more than 250 million
credit cards on file for iTunes users who could be billed directly for
wireless service."_

Ok, and the big missing piece, oh yeah the network. You know the thing that
costs 4 - 10 billion to buy the spectrum for and another 50 - 100 billion to
build out the actual network stations for. Now sure, Apple to commit its
entire cash pile to becoming another AT&T or Verizon but that certainly isn't
going to happen.

And the other challenge I see is that the carriers all co-operate with pairing
agreements and roaming agreements because they are all in the same pool. Bring
in an 800 lb gorilla which is trying to 'crush' them? Do they co-operate now?
Probably not.

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peterknego
It's more likely that this rumors are a move to extract even more cash from
telcos.

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cturner
Markets that require detailed interaction with customers are a minefield.

I can't see Apple wanting to be there.

Consumer telecoms is a brutal, low-margin business. The service providers are
doing them a favour by being there, because they shield Apple branding from
the nastiness of the domain.

[Edit: I removed some references to Google while I was mulling on it. Can't
quite remember what it said, but I expect notatoad's feedback was in-spirit]

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notatoad
this article is about apple, not google. apple already has channels to
directly interact with their customers. Apple stores are hugely successful,
have a great reputation, and are everywhere.

and consumer telecom is hardly a low-margin business. it might not be as high
margin as apple is used to, but consumer telecom companies seem to manage to
pull in plenty of profit.

~~~
smackfu
AT&T and Verizon stores are "everywhere". Apples stores are not. There are
more and more, but they stick to upscale areas and big cities, so it's very
easy to be 100 miles from the nearest Apple store if you aren't on the coast.

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tdr
Actual quote: _[..] says Apple will soon begin to offer wireless service
directly to iPhone and iPad users._

In the last years Apple focused on innovation. Moving against the carriers
(voice service) doesn't look too good (going against partners, very mature
business == little potential & high costs)

Going in the _wireless data service_ (internet) would however bring value:
less latency, more speed, better Siri service.

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ralfd
Oh, come on hacker news! Don't upvote crazy Apple rumors. Leave that stuff on
Macrumors.

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phil
...according to random pundit trying to get attention at industry conference.

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pooriaazimi
This piece (by Jean-Louis Gassée, August 2011) is relevant:

Steve, Please Buy Us A Carrier!

[http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/08/14/steve-please-buy-us-
a-c...](http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/08/14/steve-please-buy-us-a-carrier/)

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brudgers
The premise is entirely US centric - strategies aimed at ATT, Verizon, and
carrier subsidies don't scale globally.

And of course, begs the question of how this would help Apple sell the
hardware from which it derives the bulk of it's profits.

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haydenevans
I'll believe it when I see it, seems very unlikely though. BGR is on a role,
this has to be the second or third horrible article I've read from them this
week.

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moystard
It seems to be a risky move and I don't know if Apple wants to go down this
path. There are huge costs tied to network operators' functions..

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speg
Please come to Canada.

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nextparadigms
They would probably charge even more than the carriers.

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snowwrestler
How would this crush the carriers when, as an MVNO, Apple would be writing the
carriers a giant check every month to use their towers?

The CLEC wars proved that you can't use a network owner's wires to compete
against them.

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squozzer
I'm not sure Apple should play that game unless they are ready to handle the
extra regulatory and infrastructure management loads.

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georgieporgie
Looks like nothing more than a rumor, flagged.

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iamgopal
I hope now google do not do that...

