Amazon Interested In Buying Boost From T-Mobile and Sprint, Says Report (reuters.com) 34
Amazon is reportedly interested in buying prepaid cellphone wireless service Boost Mobile from U.S. carriers T-Mobile and Sprint. "Amazon is considering buying Boost mainly for an attached wholesale deal that would allow the buyer to use T-Mobile's wireless network for at least six years," reports Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the matter. "Amazon would also be interested in any wireless spectrum that could be divested." From the report: It was not immediately clear why the U.S. online retail giant and cloud services provider would want the wireless network and spectrum. T-Mobile and Sprint have offered concessions, including selling Boost, to reduce their market share in the prepaid wireless business and gain regulatory approval for their planned $26 billion merger. The U.S. Justice Department would need to scrutinize the buyer of a divested asset to ensure it will stay viable and preserve competition. The carriers are also considering divesting wireless spectrum, or airwaves that carry data, in order to push the merger through.
Re: Die amazon bozos (Score:1)
I know why they're doing this:
Now when you get Amazon Prime, we'll throw in 100MB of mobile data for free as well! (Additional data charges may apply. Amazon already has your credit card for those.)
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Nah, I think they're interested in wireless network access so that they can more effectively spy on you with their next gen Kindle 5G/LTE and Alexa 5G/LTE devices. The CIA is one of Amazon's biggest customers, you know.
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I know why they're doing this:
Now when you get Amazon Prime, we'll throw in 100MB of mobile data for free as well! (Additional data charges may apply. Amazon already has your credit card for those.)
Sounds good to me (they'd probably throw in more, btw).
AFAIK, Boost doesn't own spectrum. It's just... (Score:1)
...a brand name MVNO at this point. It's odd the a carrier is selling its own services at a cheaper cost, but AT&T has done the same thing with Cricket Wireless.
It shouldn't be that strange Amazon might enter the market. Walmart, Comcast, and Google all have their own MVNO services. Amazon could attach it to their Echo services somehow.
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It's odd the a carrier is selling its own services at a cheaper cost, but AT&T has done the same thing with Cricket Wireless.
That's not odd, that's the standard business practice of "segmenting the market." You sell a premium service for a high premium. Some people will go for it and you make big profit margins on them. But eventually, all the people willing to go for that premium price run out and you can't increase profits further -- nobody new is signing up. So then you launch a no-name budget brand with the same services (maybe slightly shot in the foot to differentiate it from the premium service) at progressively lower pric
Re:AFAIK, Boost doesn't own spectrum. It's just... (Score:5, Insightful)
When they auctioned off all that spectrum a couple years ago, one of the requirements was that they had to reserve space for competitors to be able to use. So technically any of us could launch a service like boost and use the towers. One company even ran a Super Bowl ad basically saying exactly that. However it’s easier for a company like Amazon to purchase an already functioning entity then having to do all the development of the OEM phone as well as getting the CLEC license to terminate and originate calls off the PSTN as well as maintaining SMS and voice messaging. But licensing air space and getting tower access and negotiating a contract is still substantially difficult but that hurdle has been removed as long as your volume does not exceed a certain threshold. At that point you have to break away and build your own crap
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Walmart, Comcast, and Google all have their own MVNO services.
Walmart gave up. They sold their branding to America Movil (the parent company of Carlos Slim's many TracFone brands).
A lot of people here think Boost is pointless, but they were actually the first nationwide prepaid provider to roll out a $50/mo fully unlimited plan. Prior to that, you weren't getting an unlimited plan without signing a contract. At the time, T-Mobile didn't even offer data access on their prepaid service. Seriously. (Uncarrier that, T-Mobile...)
Prepaid had a reputation of being overp
Prime phones (Score:5, Interesting)
Amazon already sells Prime phones. They are cheaper than unlocked phones, but with a locked bootloader, and with Amazon ads on the homescreen and lockscreen.
I could imagine their Prime phones now coming with free data.
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I think hes trying to undermine the google play store. Boost already has a subscriber base. He could tell iphone users to get service elsewhere, android users must use amazon app store instead, and of course those kindle fire like phones.
Amazon app store is crap. I used to buy their fire tablets for the kids just out of sheer price.
I got tired of always finding apps unavailable that exists in both the AppStore and Google Play store. I ended up going with the Lenovo 10” tablets that price around $150 i
Re: Prime phones (Score:2)
"I used to buy their fire tablets for the kids just out of sheer price.
I got tired of always finding apps unavailable that exists in both the AppStore and Google Play store. I ended up going with the Lenovo 10â tablets that price around $150 instead. "
I bought a Kindle Fire HD 8 last year for our 3 kids (aged 4-9 at the time) to use, mainly for:
- The Lego Boost app
- Clash of Clans (to get them off my phone and let them each have their own game).
Both of these are now om the Amazon App store where they w
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well here are some of the things amazon didnt have in their store that frustrated the crap out of me
Allowance Bot - great app to have kids track chores and gives them money for completing them after the parent approves them
Dancing Line - good for vision therapy
Hasboro Battleship - multiplayer with other users (special deal 3 pack also has Clue and game of Life)
Exploding Kittens - online version of the card game, play over net or with friends (includes bluetooth gaming when no network to join)
Infinite Campus
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Says the guy using his tracked iPhone.
Boost is an MNVO (Score:2)
maybe I'm wrong but I thought boost actually owns nothing. No spectrum, no towers, no retail. They just are a Sprint MNVO. So all you get buying boost is the customer list and the sales/customer service phone tree, the handset distribution network, and associated contractors. Am I missing something? Considering that Amazon is, at it's core, a logistics and fullfillment company, it's already an expert in the mechanics of the bussiness and perhaps only lacks the subject matter vocabulary for sales and ser
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well, if you take a big subscriber list, and then force them to use the Amazon App store instead of Play... amazon now gets 30% of all in-app purchases and other app purchases instead of that money going to google.
Re: Boost is an MNVO (Score:1)
I have a Boost mobile phone and have never logged in to Google on it. I have purchased stuff from Amazon on it but have not installed the Amazon app store.
My Boost phone is about the freedom of just buying a $35 card at any of dozens of places that sell them to 'recharge' my phone each month.
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Amazon already sells Prime phones. They are cheaper than unlocked phones, but with a locked bootloader, and with Amazon ads on the homescreen and lockscreen.
I could imagine their Prime phones now coming with free data.
Um, not sure where you live but in the USA you will pay a fortune for an unlocked phone, so not really sure what kind of point you are hoping to make with that. But the idea that they might use this acquisition to offer free data to sell their own phones is some good insight.
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Um, you can get unlocked phones at Walmart for $20. $50 if you want an Android "smartphone". What country are you living in?
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Amaz owns all means of delivery (Score:1)
My guess: sure they can resell. But the bigger bet , just as they're "dis-intermediating" FedEx and the USPS, is they need bandwidth to track their delivery vehicles.
All those private cars and prime vans driving around need maps and comms. They're paying another org who are pricing to market. Get rid of the middle man, further reduce costs.
SMRS (Score:1)
There's a mobile operator named after the library? (Score:2)
Boost only runs on Sprint's network. (Score:2)
the buyer to use T-Mobile's wireless network
That's great, but Boost runs on Sprint's network.
Project Kuiper (Score:2)
How do you quickly monetize Project Kuiper? Phased-array satellite antennas aren't cheap yet.
My guess: Amazon is thinking of doing LEO sat backhaul of towers and using terrestrial spectrum licenses for last-mile delivery. It also gives them a network they own for their drone and fleet operations.