[sologoub]

> Four.

Interestingly, the US cell phone industry would seem competitive - major players (Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile) and a bunch of smaller and/or regional players including the incumbent telcos like xfinity and spectrum. Then you dig a little deeper and see that all that “competition” runs on the towers of one of the three and unlike with the reform of British Telecom (BT), there are no requirements for this infra to be offered at any kind of lower price or at cost enabling competition for the last mile service.

[sanex]

5 years ago or so I had T-Mobile for $50/month unlimited everything. I switched off and just went back for $170 for a phone for my wife and I. To pretend to be comparable on a per line basis they gave me a phone number that I literally could not refuse. Before they bought Sprint we had the magic 4 but now it's 3 and a bunch of resellers.

[_mlbt]

Sprint was not going to survive. They were circling the drain and needed to be acquired to be rescued. I was a customer of theirs and they could literally only compete on price. T-mobile wasn’t in much better shape. Post merger the improvement in network quality and customer service has been night and day. Sprint owned tons of spectrum but was terrible at using it. T-mobile was spectrum starved and would not have the network they have today without purchasing Sprint.

Sprint literally bet on the wrong technology every single generation. They also had trouble getting many popular phones because they used such oddball network technology.

[ryankshaw]

My understanding is that T-mobile solved their spectrum issue in the failed deal with AT&T. As part of the penalties of the deal not going through, AT&T had to give them a bunch of spectrum, and some cash to build out towers to deploy that new spectrum.

[listenallyall]

> 3 and a bunch of resellers.

You just explained why prices went up - not because Sprint exited, but because the market bifurcated into prepaid and postpaid. You can get unlimited everything on T-Mobile's network from Mint, for about $30 per month. You just have to pay up front, and you have to bring your own phone. The "majors" have raised prices on 1- and 2- line plans because they are positioning themselves as a premium product especially for families and groups with lots of lines. No point in competing to a race to the bottom vs Mint, Cricket, Metro, etc.

[sologoub]

There are still feature limitations, such as Apple Watch with same number as your phone, etc.

[sologoub]

4 is still an oligopoly[1]. It’s a little better than 3, but we didn’t have super cheap cell plans. Compared with most of the rest of the world, it was still quite expensive.

[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly