January is always the same in the telecoms world: probably quite fun if you’re in Las Vegas perving over new gadgets that can tell you exactly how many calories you consumed and steps you didn’t take over the past month, but less joyous if you’re back in the office catching up on industry developments and looking for interesting news to share.
As far as the latter is concerned, it has been slim pickings this week. 2015 has yet to throw up anything brand new and exciting, but some of the big stories from last year are still developing.
We’re still waiting for the outcome of the U.S. AWS-3 spectrum auction, which, after a short break over the festive period, has restarted and has reached round 180. The total is now up to a staggering $44.65 billion, although bidding has slowed considerably, with about $1 billion added in the past month.
Now that watching the headline figure creep slowly upwards has become less interesting, industry watchers have turned their attention to speculating on which companies will have the biggest bills when it’s all over.
Financial analysts are twitchy about the amount the U.S. operators will to have to spend to secure spectrum and there have been reports that the big guns, AT&T and Verizon, could spend tens of billions each.
But Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam this week hinted that his company is not responsible for much of the frenzied bidding in the earlier rounds.
Speaking at the Citi 2015 Global Internet, Media & Telecommunications Conference, McAdam said that with regard to the auction, "there’s some wild speculation out there."
Many recent press articles must have been "written over a lot of Christmas cheer," he added.
He is not permitted to discuss the spectrum sale at present, but "we’ll set the record straight right after the auction closes," and the deposits have been paid, he promised.
McAdam also dismissed talk that his company is considering acquiring media and Internet company AOL, although he indicated that partnerships with AOL, and others like it, could well be on the cards.
Much of the rest of the big news from the industry also came from the U.S. this week, where the country’s mobile operators are still jockeying for position.
Verizon shared its preliminary numbers for the fourth quarter of 2014 without much fanfare or detail on Tuesday, but all eyes were on the number three and four operators in the market.
Last summer T-Mobile US chief executive John Legere declared his intention to overtake Sprint as the country’s third largest mobile operator by the end of the year. On Thursday he backtracked a little, based on an improved recent performance from Sprint, but still insists his company will pull ahead of its rival in 2015.
T-Mobile added 2.1 million customers in the most recent quarter, taking its total base to 55.02 million, while Sprint’s net adds came in at 967,000. Sprint did not share its overall total, but based on its September figures it likely stands at around 56 million.
Although Sprint retains the lead for now, T-Mobile’s numbers make for more positive reading. While new Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure is still battling to stem high-end customer declines, T-Mobile trumpeted 1.04 million net postpaid phone additions in Q4.
Sprint had the edge in prepaid phone net adds, which isn’t a bad statistic for a company seeking to position itself as a value player, but the top end of the U.S. market is starting to look like a three-horse race.
If it wants to be a serious contender in that race, T-Mobile will have to keep up its recent momentum.
Talk of a takeover is also likely to resurface this year. It’s shaping up to be a big one for Legere.
