Although the fourth-largest US wireless carrier (after Sprint’s death) is going ahead with its plan to launch the “Netflix” of 5G networks this year, it will obviously take a while for Dish to achieve the kind of cellular penetration it needs to truly give the competition a run for its money.
That sounds like an excellent business plan, but it’s made a little difficult by T-Mo’s “anti-competitive, aggressive, and combative” attitude towards Dish. The “Un-carrier” is being accused of seeking vengeance after being “dumped” with a killer new prepaid deal that allegedly undercuts Dish’s wholesale network access rate.
Basically, Magenta is charging Dish more to use its network than it’s now charging actual customers, making it mathematically impossible for its ally turned worst enemy to stay competitive without bleeding money. It remains to be seen if the two parties will be able to bury the hatchet and ultimately find a way to continue doing business together or if Dish will completely break up the relationship and go steady with AT&T.
