Should Apple or Samsung become MVNOs?

[bigsnake49]

Yes, you have heard it before. Carriers are becoming too insular and they all have their weak spots. What if there was an MVNO that bought capacity from AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, hey might as well throw T-Mobile in there and then chose the best signal or best available data capacity from the available choices. The customer would be oblivious to which carrier was getting used at any particular time. Now we all know that it might be limited by how many radios you could cram in your handset, but let's just say that the technical problems could be solved, what's to stop Apple, Microsoft or Samsung from becoming their own MVNO? They deal directly with the consumer and the carrier is just a dumb pipe. Will there be push back from the carriers?

[Boosted20V]

Well for one, once you initiate a call or data session, you cannot flip between carriers. Also, the billing would be problematic to say the least.

[bigsnake49]

Why would the billing become problematic? You're dealing with Apple or Samsung.

 

Both the call and the data session can be continued on another carrier. The technology exists. It just has not been implemented.

[Boosted20V]

Why would the billing become problematic? You're dealing with Apple or Samsung.

 

Both the call and the data session can be continued on another carrier. The technology exists. It just has not been implemented.

 

What technology exists to hand a call from WCDMA on ATT to 1x on Sprint? Also, why would the carriers ever agree to this?

[nahum365]

What technology exists to hand a call from WCDMA on ATT to 1x on Sprint? Also, why would the carriers ever agree to this?

If the profit from this idea was larger, they would. Obviously, the profit won't be more, not even as much as they are making right now. So they won't agree. Ever.