Sprint is joining Verizon and AT&T as a carrier of the iPhone. According to “Sprint to Get iPhone 5” by Joann S. Lublin and Spencer E. Ante of WSJ.com, Sprint will debut the iPhone 5 in October.
Sprint is the “third-largest carrier” and is experiencing a loss of subscribers. Their recent subscription report, 52 million, doesn’t come close to the volumes of Verizon and AT&T, 106 million and 99 million, respectively. The addition of the anticipated iPhone 5 is sure to bring more subscribers towards Sprint. Sprint will also get the iPhone 4, which should attract customers who do not wish to pay the price tag of a newly released iPhone.
But, according to the article, there is a caveat to having the iPhone 5…
…“the deal could also hurt Sprint by helping AT&T improve its chances of winning approval from regulators for its $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA”. The AT&T – T-mobile merger would create the largest cell carrier. Sprint has worked hard to prevent the merger, including submitting their own research to the government allegedly proving that AT&T could improve and expand without using T-Mobile. Sprint uses the argument of competition to fight the merger but honestly, they are more fearful of being pushed to the bottom or out of the market by the future AT&T- T-mobile entity.
The article didn’t go into detail about the reasons the Sprint iPhone would help AT&T. But considering the merger could be approved if AT&T could argue that it doesn’t reduce competition, the iPhone could be used as a means to support the idea that Sprint will not suffer from the merger because the iPhone is increasing competition.
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