What’s next for Amazon you ask? Well it is being reported that the company is interested in buying the Boost Mobile network form T-Mobile and Sprint so that Amazon could have access to T-Mobile’s wireless network. Following this move they plan on purchasing some of T-Mobile’s spectrum. The background facts behind this report are very intriguing.
T-Mobile doesn’t own Boost and since Boost runs on Sprint’s network, any new owner of Boost would get access to Sprint’s wireless network, not T-Mobile’s. The Department of Justice announced that they don’t want the number of major wireless US carries to fall below four. So not both T-Mobile and Sprint are being asked to lay the groundwork for an entirely new carrier to emerge. Perhaps Amazon is pitching itself as the solution to everyone’s woes?
Why would the largest US online retailer want the wireless network and spectrum? Maybe your Prime membership would come with a side of unlimited LTE data now. They already can compete FedEx and UPS for shipping enterprises and they offer all kinds of goods and cloud services. This is starting to make some sense. Amazon wants to make a push to own the last mile that connects Amazon’s internet services to its users.
Google and Facebook both have pursued their own internet delivery schemes over the years, why not Amazon? Especially now if they can get a good deal from two carriers desperate to merge. Reminder, Amazon once had ambitions to sell phones as the ultimate human touchpoint and now wouldn’t be a bad time to head back down that road. A wireless network could give Amazon more leverage in the US since an EU ruling last year made it much easier to sell Android devices without Google’s buy in. For now, this is all speculation and just two sources familiar with each other.