Anyone have any thoughts about Amazon entering the wireless business?
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Seems like a work in progress. Rumored but unconfirmed. Do you have any details?
Amazon has lots of resources and AWS cloud service. You would not be surprised to see them try to put a wireless service together for their prime customers.
But they lack a cell tower network. Deal with an existing service is probably required.
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With LTE bringing the big two, Verizon and AT&T into the same technology at the OSI model’s layers one and two, I have wondered when the towers would be sold off into Telecommunications RIETs.
With RIETs all the field work, power and real estate would be consolidated so that multiple technicians would not be driving past each other to service duplicated equipment doing the same exact work.
When and if this happens, then Amazon could enter the industry asset light.
Of course, Amazon could by AT&T with petty cash.
But we would unionize them.
Evil chuckle.
Cheers
Qazulight
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That seems easy enough to do. Consumer Cellular popped up out of nowhere, as did Mint (just sold to T-Mobile); they just resell the service of the big boys. Walmart has an eponymous service, as do others, so this appears not to be too hard. The question is “why”? I get why AT&T or Verizon would sell bulk to a reseller and let them deal with the headaches, but why would Amazon do it, except to have a service with their name on it. Could they achieve a better profitability than the others? Maybe. I wonder what the take rate would be for them versus VZ or ATT.
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Our mobile service is from Xfinity. https://www.xfinity.com/mobile/
Xfinity is our internet (and cable - but no thanks) service provider in our town and as an internet customer, we get a great deal on our iPhone service.
We have iPhone 11’s that we own outright and our bill for both phones (free calling and text, and shared 1GB data/month) is $19.82/month (includes all taxes and fees) with automatic payment.
1GB for some people may not be enough, but DW and I are around wifi most of the time and can utilize local wifi instead of using 4G mobile service. IF we overrun the 1GB, the second GB is a one-time $10 upcharge (I think).
Xfinity uses Verizon’s LTE, 4G and 5G wireless network. We’re very happy with our service.
'38Packard
→ $20 / month for 2 iPhones works for us!!!
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As to why, Amazon Prime is a major profit center and costs continue to rise. Adding wireless as a feature makes it more attractive to many.
Well, i saw VZ and T shares take a hit on Friday over this.
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More than half the country’s households already have a Prime account and churn is very low. The cell phone business, if you are not one of the big two, is low margin and has pretty significant churn. Now I understand why Comcast (Xfinity) got into the business, because they already have the Wi-Fi outlet in homes in 40 states, so buying some bulk and repackaging as their own Wi-Fi to complement the out-of-home use makes sense. It also kind-of makes sense for some startups who buy bulk and resell under a different trade name (Mint, Consumer Cellular, etc.) and who are willing to take a smaller margin and not have to deal with their own towers, etc. At least it gets them going.
But I don’t see why this would make sense for Amazon. I happily admit the amount I don’t know about the cell world would fill a swimming pool, but I don’t see it helping the small amount of churn Prime already has, I don’t see it bringing lots of new customers in (who are largely at the lower end of the economic scale anyway), and even if it did, I don’t see them significantly increasing purchases to the point where it would move the Amazon needle.
If it happens I will color myself surprised, but I don’t see any synergies. Amazon has warehouses and data centers. They have Cloud. They have trucks and airplanes and logistics. The have a video and music library. They have credit card numbers. All of those happened organically. I don’t see where “cell networks” fits in.
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You may be right. But if you are paying $50/mo for cell phone service and
Amazon gives it to you for a $10 increase in your Prime dues that might be compelling.
Prime may be sticky enough so all keep it, but rising fees may cause some to reconsider.
Since we are long time Verizon and Prime customers & Members, as well as holding VZ share, as this develops, or doesn’t will be interesting… But for now, knowing nothing of the arrangements being considered, I find it hard to see any advantage to Verizon… So I’ll hang on, see how it turns out…
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