Ask HN: chances Apple buys a cell carrier in 2011?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1998541

by zoomzoom • 16 years ago

5 7 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Chance to vertically integrate and capital intensive. Seems to make some sense. Is it crazy?

iwwr• 16 years ago

It won't happen, the regulatory hurdles are too great. Also, maintaining physical and geographically disparate infrastructure is expensive. An infrastructure company is "bound to the land" and therefore more politically (regulatory or otherwise) vulnerable.

Being AT&T is no picnic.

zoomzoom• 16 years ago

But is there any company over the last 100 years you would rather have owned, aside from maybe Standard Oil? I agree with the majority of threads that it seems unlikely, for a lot of good reasons. Just might be reward for the risk going forward.

swombat• 16 years ago

Apple's market is high-margin products where they can differentiate with superior design, marketing, and so on. Not low-margin commodities where they need to compete on price with everyone else.

hugh3• 16 years ago

Buy one in which country?

If they bought one in only one country then they don't get all that many advantages. If they buy one in every country, that's expensive and ridiculously difficult.

AlexMuir• 16 years ago

Not a chance. The moment they did this all other networks would remove the iPhone as soon as they possibly could.

tomwans• 16 years ago

it would be nice, though. You know there would only be two plans: $25 limited and an unlimited plan (for who knows how much, $50? $60?)

mattgratt• 16 years ago

0%.

Ask HN: chances Apple buys a cell carrier in 2011?

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