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T-Mobile Unveils 3G: Too Little, Too Late?
05 May, 2008
T-Mobile is rolling out 3G services in New York City today. They join their larger mobile brethren, Verizon and Sprint, who have enjoyed a considerable 3G lead on T-Mobile. Sprint is already moving on 4G plans, with Xohm. What’s taken T-Mobile so long? Probably a variety of factors, with spectrum availability towards the top of the list. As for the current launch, T-Mobile will utilize an UMTS/HSDPA network, starting in New York City and expanding into 20-25 other markets throughout the rest of the year. Initial data speeds for the service will range from 200 Kbps to 300 Kbps, with an increase by two fold soon after when the HSPDA portion of the network becomes operational.
Since Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, and others have had such a lead in offering 3G services, one has to wonder how much of a market is left. The answer is a significant one. Even though T-Mobile’s competitors have had a fair lead, we are still at the beginning of the 3G growth curve. T-Mobile should do just fine, but it may take a while for them to see mainstream adoption of 3G. Verizon and Sprint have probably already captured the low hanging fruit. T-Mobile does have a younger customer demographic, so they’ll have some real opportunity to convert those technology hungry customers to a 3G product.
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Competitive Watch - we watch the industry so you don't have to. cWatch lists the latest new competitive telecom offerings, providing you first hand knowledge of who is doing what. Check back regularly to gain competitive intelligence, ideas, and analysis. Give us your opinion - what is the impact of these new service offerings?
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Upcoming events which offer competitive insight and analysis:
Mobile Internet World
Oct 21 - 23, 2008 - Boston, MA
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Nov 11-13, 2008 - Anaheim, CA
NTCA Wireless Symposium
Jan 7-9, 2009 - Austin, TX
Featured Article
Time to Prepare for DOCSIS 3.0 is Now
07 Aug, 2008
Second quarter results for broadband growth were a tad underwhelming. There are any number of factors which probably contributed to this slowdown, with the economic slowdown and housing crisis certainly towards the top of the list. But growth is also slowing because broadband penetration has grown considerably over the past few years, now ranging somewhere between 50% to 60% (depending on who you ask), and is beginning to slow down. There certainly is more room for growth, but at some point in the near future, broadband penetration will slow even more as it approaches saturation. It’s anyone’s guess what saturation is, but I would bet somewhere around 75% penetration of households (as a national average - individual markets will vary widely). From a service provider’s point of view, that suggests that posting continuing net adds of broadband customers will increasingly involve convincing a competitor's broadband customer base to switch service.