Will There Soon Be Changes in the Cell Phone Industry?

Although lately we have seen the introduction of many new types of cell phones, yet the industry itself has been rather quiet. Since cell phones transitioned from being an item that was based on emergency need to one of luxury want they have been the subject of constant conversations. There was not been any deals in the cell phone industry that mad headlines since the one that involved Sprint and Nextel. In my opinion that deal was senseless considering that Nextel phones and Sprint phones have yet to become fully integrated. For example, Nextel's famous direct connect feature on its phones could not be used to communicate on Sprint phones. There was a small deal where Verizon wireless acquired Alltel wireless, which was a cell phone company with a small footprint in the Southeast. Actually this deal was so small that many people probably have never heard about it. Now there were rumors lingering in the business world of a possible merger between AT&T wireless and Verizon wireless but it was without merit. If this merger was close to becoming reality the FCC probably would not allow it to go through because of a possible monopoly. Verizon and AT&T are not just currently the two largest carriers but they also have the largest coverage areas throughout the United States. The cliché that says that there is quiet before the storm leads me to seriously believe that the cell phone industry is long overdue for a major deal.

There are currently four major cell phone companies which are: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile. I can remember in the early days of cell phone companies how they all were jockeying for position in the industry. They constantly came up with fresh new innovative ideas to try to earn your business. Some of these cell phone companies spent millions of dollars in both research and development and customer retention. Now that the cell phone industry is highly saturated that humbleness they once had has slowly turned to arrogance. I can honestly say that I have had cell phone service with 3 of the 4 carriers. I have worked for one of the major carriers and from experience I can say that most of them operative reactively instead of proactively. They only make changes in response to their competitors. While some cell phone carriers have better coverage than others they all have their share of shortfalls.