AT&T detailed a joint venture (JV) between the Big Three this week. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are teaming up improve customer experience by eliminating coverage gaps, as well as help drive the industry as a whole by, “enabling competition and fostering innovation.”
The big takeaway is that the JV is in a position to better serve rural areas using satellite connectivity. With satellites, these carriers can essentially eliminate dead zones in the US, which very much still exist in many parts of this country. Additionally, in times of emergency, satellite constellations can provide a redundant connectivity option when terrestrial networks are unavailable.
Here are three of the customer benefits listed by the JV.
- Fewer coverage gaps: Will nearly eliminate dead zones in the U.S. currently without mobile service, reaching previously unserved areas.
- Reliable connectivity in emergencies: Redundant connectivity will become available when existing ground-based networks are unavailable due to extreme natural disasters or other unusual disruptions.
- Improved network performance: Will give customers more consistent performance and simpler access to satellite services across providers. This will speed up feature updates and improve connectivity for everyone, everywhere.
The press release contained quotes from all three CEOs. The only one that caught our attention was T-Mobile’s Srini Gopalan, who of course had to point out that they were the first to launch a nationwide, satellite-powered network for text and data. Thank you, T-Mobile.
The three carriers have an agreement in principle to form the new JV. It will still take time for these improvements to be available to customers, but this all seems like a positive step.
// AT&T
