The "ACS" (Apple Cellular Service) Phone Company

[braddick]

How improbable would it be for Apple to simply start up their own cellular phone company?

They'd feature their own phones over their own service and cut out AT&T completely.

The start-up would be expensive, of course, but looking long term, do you think it would be profitable or even feasible?

 

[dontwalkhand]

Placing towers every few miles all over the US, and then continue on all around the world....pretty hard.

 

[justblack78]

I think the startup costs would be too much and really can't see it happening.

 

[Tallest Skil]

They'd create their own protocol that absolutely no one else would follow and would only be compatible with their devices. They would control all content on their network and have the final say in all web traffic.

Not happening.

 

[PoitNarf]

The start-up would be expensive, of course, but looking long term, do you think it would be profitable or even feasible?

The start-up costs would be ASTRONOMICAL, and it would take several years to build up enough coverage to even come close to the coverage that any of the big 4 in the US have. No CEO or CFO in their right mind would even toy with this idea.

 

[braddick]

How do start-ups like Cricket do it then? They've only been around a few months and are now advertising their service all over the place. There are other cellular companies like them.

How about, if money is tight for Apple, buying out an existing company and turning it into something of their own.

 

[Tallest Skil]

How about, if money is tight for Apple, buying out an existing company and turning it into something of their own.

They'd have to buy AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile, which isn't happening.

 

[dontwalkhand]

How do start-ups like Cricket do it then? They've only been around a few months and are now advertising their service all over the place. There are other cellular companies like them.

How about, if money is tight for Apple, buying out an existing company and turning it into something of their own.

Cricket has been around since 1999/2000...at least here in Phoenix. They may be a few months in YOUR AREA...that proves that it will take Apple this long, maybe even longer to penetrate the entire US, seeing as Cricket didn't even penetrate the entire US yet....and that is only speaking for the US, what about Europe, Asia, Africa, etc?

 

[alansaysstop]

doesn't metropcs and cricket use sprints towers?

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Generally the "start-up" cell phone companies are what's known as "MVNO," a "Mobile virtual Network Operator," who bums signal/towers from a larger company.

Cricket is currently in an 10 year agreement with MetroPCS for tower sharing in a bunch of markets.

In the US, 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless · Hawaiian Telcom · Jitterbug Wireless · Kajeet · KDDI Mobile · Liberty Wireless · Lucky Wireless · MOSH Mobile · Movida Wireless · Page plus cellular · TracFone Wireless · Trumpet Mobile · Virgin Mobile USA are all MVNO cell phone providers.

It was rumored that Apple was going to do this with the AT&T network before the original iPhone launched in order to get better pricing/plans to customers, but they managed to get AT&T down to $20 for the unlimited EDGE data+200 SMS instead.

Edit: Took too long to type and beaten by dontwalkhand and alansysstop.

 

[onabudget]

Yes, it is very expensive. Billions of $ are needed. Don't forget that they would also have buy frequency spectrum from the feds at auction It's easier if they bought an existing carrier and built it from there or became a MVNO and did just the marketing.

 

[PoitNarf]

How do start-ups like Cricket do it then? They've only been around a few months and are now advertising their service all over the place. There are other cellular companies like them.

How about, if money is tight for Apple, buying out an existing company and turning it into something of their own.

There are some smaller companies that basically have leases to use another providers network, they don't actually have their own infrastructure or if they do their infrastructure is limited to certain small areas. I believe this was the case with Altel before Verizon acquired them.

I doubt Apple is interested in getting involved in any of this. Why would you want them to?

 

[braddick]

They'd have to buy [AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile, which isn't happening.

I suppose it is now too late for a new cellular phone company to enter the market.
If anyone could make a go of it though I'd think it would be Apple.
It seems like they're leaving a lot of the money on the table for AT&T.

Apple gets paid once- at the purchase of a phone, while AT&T continue to get paid during the full duration of the contract.

 

[onabudget]

doesn't metropcs and cricket use sprints towers?

The might lease space on certain Sprint towers. All carriers do it. It is cheaper than building a new one and easier to get permitted.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Apple gets paid once- at the purchase of a phone, while AT&T continue to get paid during the full duration of the contract.

Apple received part of all monthly payments of all 2G iPhone users. Now, the very first 2G contracts are up, and I don't know of anyone with a 2G that extended their contract (I never had one), but Apple will STILL be receiving that money until no more 2G contracts exist.

 

[PoitNarf]

Apple gets paid once- at the purchase of a phone, while AT&T continue to get paid during the full duration of the contract.

Apple gets continuous revenue from the iPhone as well through iTunes purchases of music/movies/apps to be used on the iPhones.

 

[braddick]

Apple gets continuous revenue from the iPhone as well through iTunes purchases of music/movies/apps to be used on the iPhones.

Good point. Although Apple does divvy up the profits with the developers.

AT&T doesn't have to share their profits with anyone.

 

[Mr Dobey]

No chance!

Apple is still a pin prick as far as business's go, so to start up there own national or international cell station would be an astronomical expense

 

[Tallest Skil]

AT&T doesn't have to share their profits with anyone.

Yes, Apple, as I said before.

 

[dagomike]

Yeah, they would have to be virtual provider. Even if they went nuts and built their network, they might not even have the spectrum available to do it.

I can't see any reason to do this other than cutting out AT&T's customer support and sales. Bottom line is odd are you'd still be using ATT network, but would be complaining about Apple employees/contractors instead of ATT.

 

[tcarcur]

i recall that when the first iphone came out, there were some references for a mobile operator in the firmware files.

cell phone service from apple would be cool

 

[PoitNarf]

cell phone service from apple would be cool

I fail to see how it would be any better than any of the other providers out there. Once you scale any company to the size of a national wireless provider you'll run into the same problems that the providers around today have. Do some of you just want to see an Apple logo on your phone bill or something?

 

[Hankster]

How do start-ups like Cricket do it then? They've only been around a few months and are now advertising their service all over the place. There are other cellular companies like them.

How about, if money is tight for Apple, buying out an existing company and turning it into something of their own.

Cricket has around for years not months. Plus their coverage isn't very good at all compared to even crap companies like Sprint.

 

[mbsaeger]

Helio Phones have their own Cellular network

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

No.

Helio was originally an MNVO on the Sprint network as a joint venture between Earthlink and SK Telecom, and they're now owned by Virgin Mobile USA (who is also an MNVO on Sprint's network)