T-Mobile US and Sprint finally get some support for merger

Budget MVNO Ting Mobile has come out in support of the proposed T-Mobile US and Sprint merger, standing pretty lonely opposite the waves of opposition.

In a letter to the FCC, Elliott Noss, CEO of parent company Tucows, has penned his support for the merger. While there certainly will be support for the transaction outside of the T-Mobile US and Sprint offices, Noss is creating a pretty lonely silhouette at the moment.

“In a general sense, we think the T-Mobile/Sprint merger makes strong business sense and will generally benefit most stakeholders,” Noss states. “For greater clarity, we view the group of stakeholders as customers, employees and investors, in that order.

“We believe customers will benefit from a more efficient, profitable company which will allow greater investment in building the current Sprint spectrum in particular. We are uncertain whether customers will benefit from lower prices as we have seen in Canada (with the most expensive mobile phone service in the world) that three competitors and no MVNO presence in the market leads to clear oligopolistic pricing and a minimum of competitive pricing pressures.”

While the queue opposing the merger has been growing over the last few days, T-Mobile US has apparently been lobbying MVNOs and customers to build its own legion of support. There there have been few public statements so far, this might well be the first, and although Tucows is not a massive player, having an established business will count for something.

For those who are not aware of Tucows and its Ting Mobile brand, the organization operates out of Ontario in Canada and Mississippi in the US, using both Sprint and T-Mobile US’ networks. The firm generated revenues of $81 million for the quarter ending August 8, with a net income of $3.6 million. This quarter demonstrated a 4% decline in revenues, though the firm is up 15% year-on-year for the first six months.

The general message here seems to be one which contradicts that of the bigger telco boys; light-touch regulation is the way forward and this merger will benefit US consumers and businesses.

Looking at the opposition, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, satellite operator Dish and MVNO Altice USA were the latest to join. Dish and Altice USA have both stated the merger would make them reconsider entering the mobile race in the US, though Tucows clearly believes this is a lot of hot air. The merger would not prevent it from succeeding in the future.

“We had chosen Sprint and T-Mobile as our service providers originally for a variety of reasons, including price, device compatibility, territorial coverage, protocol coverage (CDMA and GSM), and MVNO-friendly policies and practices,” Noss states. “These factors were not the same for both companies. In some cases, Sprint is stronger than T-Mobile. In other cases, T-Mobile has advantages. Mostly, we chose to add T-Mobile as a second network in 2014 in order to have diversity of supply and to have some leverage with our suppliers in hopes of balancing an unequal bargaining position.

“In combination, a new Sprint/T-Mobile entity should continue to provide diverse support for geography, protocols, and device support. Sprint and T-Mobile, however, have different approaches to pricing and MVNO policies and support generally, and they have not announced which practices will prevail in a post-merger company.”

Noss believes a healthy MVNO sector can compensate for reduced competition as a result of the merger, and this ecosystem should be given more attention by the FCC. Neglecting the MVNO market would create the same sticky situation Canadians are facing in terms of competition, which would have more of a negative impact that the combination of Sprint and T-Mobile.

This is an opportunity for Noss to have a moan at regulators for neglecting the MVNO market to date, most notably the adoption of eSIMs, however it is fundamentally in support of the merger. Tucows might be a minnow on the US telco scene, but should the T-Mobile US lobbying efforts work, enough support from the MVNOs will have to be taken into consideration. Could this be the first of many…