The CEO of US operator Sprint Nextel has said that in spite of last years failed AT&T / T-Mobile USA merger, he believes the regulator would be open to more consolidation as long as it did not involve AT&T or Verizon. Speaking at a TMT conference in…
The CEO of US operator Sprint Nextel has said that in spite of last years failed AT&T / T-Mobile USA merger, he believes the regulator would be open to more consolidation as long as it did not involve AT&T or Verizon.
Speaking at a TMT conference in Boston, Sprint’s Dan Hesse said: “I actually believe that Washington would be receptive to consolidation to provide more balance with the big two.”
Noting that he was “pretty close” to last year’s AT&T/T-Mobile situation, he said he believed that “both the DOJ and FCC have a very open mind with respect to any additional industry consolidation and want to see a competitive wireless industry.”
While he talked up the possibility of operator consolidation, he poured cold water on any notion that Sprint was looking for a deal in the short term.
The carrier is in the process of upgrading its network, he said, and this investments has affected the share price.
Ideally, the company would look at strategic alternatives not before 2014.
However, Hesse said it would have to look at the value of any potential deal. “You would have to compare dilution versus other ways to create value like synergies,” he said.
Hesse also commented on the FCC’s review of Verizon’s US$3.9bn purchase of AWS band.
“We want to make sure the process is thorough,” he said. “Spectrum is one of those commodities that’s limited. It is a barrier to entry – if you don’t have spectrum you can’t compete in the market – so I think the FCC is cognoscente of not having too much concentration in spectrum. We would agree with that position.”
