Was That All The Consolidation We'll See?
For years, people have been expecting the wireless carrier merger frenzy in the US. Everyone predicted that two companies would merge, and within a matter of months, the entire landscape would be different as every other company quickly found some sort of merger partner. So, now that Cingular got the ball rolling with AT&T Wireless, what’s next? Suddenly, some are realizing that maybe there won’t be much more consolidation. The next moves aren’t that obvious. There certainly are a lot of moves that can be made – but that doesn’t mean that any will be made. Also, the overall wireless/telecom landscape has changed a lot since those original predictions were made, and the rise of things like WiFi and VoIP have suddenly entered into the equation as well. Of course, for many of these companies, it’s just going to be too tempting for them not to merge at some point or another – but it looks like they may hold off for at least a little while.
