Google has said it is not in the race to becoming the fourth major telecom operator in the US, as is being speculated in a section of the media. A Google spokesman sought to bring to an end to what has become a raging rumor about Google’s intentions to becoming the fourth major carrier in the US in collaboration with Dish.
There however is a substantial basis to what was being speculated, given that there also are reports of Alphabet director Alan Mulally having already conversed with Disk Network on the matter. In such a scenario, Google is expected to lend its expertise in the management of the network, which can extend to both hardware and software support.
However, Google spokesman chose to play down the matter and refused to confirm if such a meeting ever took place. It also said if Alan Mulally did meet with his counterpart in Dish Network, it wasn’t in his official capacity as the Director of Alphabet.
The market situation too can be considered to be quite conducive to the Google/ Dish duo emerging as the fourth telecom operator in the US. Such a development was being seen as sort of a way to fill the void created if Sprint and T-Mobile merges to become more competitive vis-a-vis AT&T and Verizon.
However, US regulators have been reluctant to approve of the T-Mobile-Sprint merger as such a development would lead to one less choice for the Americans, besides also hurting anti-trust obligations as well. A Google – Dish tie-up was being seen as a perfect way to offset the loss of a national carrier.
Unfortunately, all of such hopes have been dashed with Google categorically stating there are no such plans in the making. In any case, Google is no stranger to offering cellular services given that it has been serving as a mobile virtual network operator for some time already under the guise Google Fi. However, that was operated using broadband services lent from T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular.
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Under the circumstances, having its own exclusive mobile network would have made a lot of sense though the company has firmly denied any such roles.
