Post by Moses on Jul 4, 2005 10:25:43 GMT -5
Will T-Mobile pull out of USA?
Germans not as daft as BT
By Tony Dennis: Monday 04 July 2005, 15:10
THE MONEY MEN appear to be speculating that Germany's T-Mobile (owned by Deutsche Telekom) might sell up out of the US market as they're faced with a hefty bill for building out a 3G network.
This was exactly the same kind of logic that persuaded BT to hive off its mobile arm, Cellnet (now O2). Boy does BT regret it now. But T-Mobile USA represents some 18 per cent of Deutsche Telekom's total revenues. In other words, it’s a cash cow at a time when revenues from traditional telecoms services are declining. So it would be daft to sell off its US operations to pay for expansion into far more mature European markets.
The second argument put forward by the speculators is that Vodafone might want to buy T-Mobile. Well, yeah. It is one of the few remaining biggish GSM networks in the States now that AT&T and Cingular have combined.
But Vodafone's Arun Sarin was burnt by his last attempt to buy a US network – AT&T Wireless – and he still hasn't extricated himself from the tie-up with Verizon. Plus – and this is a good one – A Vodafone spokesperson categorically denied any interest in T-Mobile USA to the WSJ.
Anyway, they all seem to have overlooked one major advantage which T-Mobile enjoys. It has rolled out quite an impressive Wi-Fi hot spot service in the USA. So if any of its users want high speed data, let them get one of the latest dual Wi-Fi and GSM/GPRS handsets.
On top of that, the range of GSM handsets is increasing and prices are falling. And T-Mobile has considerable purchasing power with the handset vendors on a global basis. So T-Mobile can carry on offering low cost mobile telephony quite nicely.
If anything, the INQ reckons that BT might be forced to make a last ditched attempt to buy O2 back. Before O2 is worth more than BT, that is. µ
Germans not as daft as BT
By Tony Dennis: Monday 04 July 2005, 15:10
THE MONEY MEN appear to be speculating that Germany's T-Mobile (owned by Deutsche Telekom) might sell up out of the US market as they're faced with a hefty bill for building out a 3G network.
This was exactly the same kind of logic that persuaded BT to hive off its mobile arm, Cellnet (now O2). Boy does BT regret it now. But T-Mobile USA represents some 18 per cent of Deutsche Telekom's total revenues. In other words, it’s a cash cow at a time when revenues from traditional telecoms services are declining. So it would be daft to sell off its US operations to pay for expansion into far more mature European markets.
The second argument put forward by the speculators is that Vodafone might want to buy T-Mobile. Well, yeah. It is one of the few remaining biggish GSM networks in the States now that AT&T and Cingular have combined.
But Vodafone's Arun Sarin was burnt by his last attempt to buy a US network – AT&T Wireless – and he still hasn't extricated himself from the tie-up with Verizon. Plus – and this is a good one – A Vodafone spokesperson categorically denied any interest in T-Mobile USA to the WSJ.
Anyway, they all seem to have overlooked one major advantage which T-Mobile enjoys. It has rolled out quite an impressive Wi-Fi hot spot service in the USA. So if any of its users want high speed data, let them get one of the latest dual Wi-Fi and GSM/GPRS handsets.
On top of that, the range of GSM handsets is increasing and prices are falling. And T-Mobile has considerable purchasing power with the handset vendors on a global basis. So T-Mobile can carry on offering low cost mobile telephony quite nicely.
If anything, the INQ reckons that BT might be forced to make a last ditched attempt to buy O2 back. Before O2 is worth more than BT, that is. µ