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> are starting to gain in popularity in the US. You know this is a joke, right? they all have to lease band from the 2 big ones. The government does not allow

by gcb0 13y ago

> are starting to gain in popularity in the US. You know this is a joke, right? they all have to lease band from the 2 big ones. The government does not allow them to build a network even if they had the money. The only reason they exist is to scrap the bottom end of the market. the moment the market shifts to them, the 2 big ones will raise their network use prices to the point it is cheaper to use them than the small ones.

_s 13y ago
I doubt MVNO's would ever lease bandwidth from the big ones without taking into account their long term growth forecasts - I imagine they've got 5/10/20 year agreements in place with provisions for expansion at fixed rates - it's only if they begin to eat away at their quotas that they may change their fees / structure or and/or purchase more from the original network operator.
gamblor956 13y ago
The spectrum sales carried with them severe restrictions on the prices AT&T and Verizon could charge to MVNOs, precisely to prevent that situation.
- gcb0 13y ago
  they can't even protect us about overcharges on client accounts, what about overseeing that they are providing a decent service to those rented networks? not to mention the good old lowering of their price until they've killed competition, again.
  - gamblor956 13y ago
    They do police overcharges and excess billing; both AT&T and Verizon have paid massive fines for this in the past decade. The agency is not responsible for policing quality of service--that is a function left to the market. Nor does the agency simply get to decide that it will police quality of service--it must be granted that authority by Congress.
maxsilver 13y ago
They don't have to. There are 2 "little ones" they can buy from (and often do without telling folks. Lots of Straight Talk / Net10 / TracFone devices buy from Sprint or T-Mobile without explicitly telling you) While these smaller carriers aren't always a great replacement (in a lot of areas, for a lot of reasons) they provide enough competition to work well most of the time. For instance, both AT&T and Verizon now offer $60/month prepaid plans for smartphones with LTE data. That didn't exist a year ago. If AT&T had been able to kill T-Mobile, it probably never would have happened.
- Zak 13y ago
  For instance, both AT&T and Verizon now offer $60/month prepaid plans for smartphones with LTE data. And T-Mobile offers a $30 prepaid plan with LTE data, though they don't try very hard to advertise it.

by gcb0 13y ago

_s 13y ago

I doubt MVNO's would ever lease bandwidth from the big ones without taking into account their long term growth forecasts - I imagine they've got 5/10/20 year agreements in place with provisions for expansion at fixed rates - it's only if they begin to eat away at their quotas that they may change their fees / structure or and/or purchase more from the original network operator.

gamblor956 13y ago

The spectrum sales carried with them severe restrictions on the prices AT&T and Verizon could charge to MVNOs, precisely to prevent that situation.

gcb0 13y ago
they can't even protect us about overcharges on client accounts, what about overseeing that they are providing a decent service to those rented networks? not to mention the good old lowering of their price until they've killed competition, again.
- gamblor956 13y ago
  They do police overcharges and excess billing; both AT&T and Verizon have paid massive fines for this in the past decade. The agency is not responsible for policing quality of service--that is a function left to the market. Nor does the agency simply get to decide that it will police quality of service--it must be granted that authority by Congress.

maxsilver 13y ago

They don't have to. There are 2 "little ones" they can buy from (and often do without telling folks. Lots of Straight Talk / Net10 / TracFone devices buy from Sprint or T-Mobile without explicitly telling you) While these smaller carriers aren't always a great replacement (in a lot of areas, for a lot of reasons) they provide enough competition to work well most of the time. For instance, both AT&T and Verizon now offer $60/month prepaid plans for smartphones with LTE data. That didn't exist a year ago. If AT&T had been able to kill T-Mobile, it probably never would have happened.

Zak 13y ago
For instance, both AT&T and Verizon now offer $60/month prepaid plans for smartphones with LTE data. And T-Mobile offers a $30 prepaid plan with LTE data, though they don't try very hard to advertise it.