The New York Times, has a piece about the challenges facing the combined Cingular & AT&T Wireless. Nothing new, except, now that the Times has published this story, it must be important. Its really a nothing new piece. And the real good stuff is at the end of the piece. Andrew Cole, a vice president in the wireless practice at A. T. Kearney, tells the Times “Give Cingular two years and they’ll come out a strong company. But it’s going to be a headache. And in the meantime, Verizon Wireless comes out the winner.” Yup they will pick up customers, lock them into long term plans … and well you know the drill!
The big unasked question is what will the industry even look like in 2 years. If roaming from WiFi to cellular becomes a reality, a whole new spate of MVNOs could quickly materialize around free local calling + national roaming. Verizon and Cingular will still be 1 and 2 in some order, but that won’t be worth as much as it is today.