I'm saying that I don't necessarily want consolidation, but I don't have anything against it: I can see potential scenarios where each option here could both help and hurt consumers.
We'll see about LTE. From my understanding — and the fact that they recently tried to sell the company — Deutsche Telekom isn't interested in transforming T-mobile USA into a competitive player. We'll see, maybe with an extra $4B from AT&T they'll re-evaluate and attempt to stay competitive, but otherwise I can't see a disinterested parent company want to invest heavily in LTE rollout.
And, once every other carrier and most phones are on LTE (I'd say maybe 2013 or 2014, although I don't have any backing for that timeline), then T-mobile USA will be uncompetitive (without LTE). I've used LTE, and I don't think T-mobile can compete with ~4Mbps real-world speeds when I've (already!) used LTE at up to ~25Mbps, even if the prices are cheaper.
And I completely agree that small players can survive (I'd even say that T-mobile USA has a distinct possibility to survive and thrive), but in their current situation, I feel that it would take more than just not being purchased for that to happen: more interest from their parent company, an agressive (and probably expensive) LTE rollout, and maybe even the iPhone would be necessary to keep them competitive in a few years.
We'll see about LTE. From my understanding — and the fact that they recently tried to sell the company — Deutsche Telekom isn't interested in transforming T-mobile USA into a competitive player. We'll see, maybe with an extra $4B from AT&T they'll re-evaluate and attempt to stay competitive, but otherwise I can't see a disinterested parent company want to invest heavily in LTE rollout.
And, once every other carrier and most phones are on LTE (I'd say maybe 2013 or 2014, although I don't have any backing for that timeline), then T-mobile USA will be uncompetitive (without LTE). I've used LTE, and I don't think T-mobile can compete with ~4Mbps real-world speeds when I've (already!) used LTE at up to ~25Mbps, even if the prices are cheaper.
And I completely agree that small players can survive (I'd even say that T-mobile USA has a distinct possibility to survive and thrive), but in their current situation, I feel that it would take more than just not being purchased for that to happen: more interest from their parent company, an agressive (and probably expensive) LTE rollout, and maybe even the iPhone would be necessary to keep them competitive in a few years.