Merge Sprint and T-Mobile and the tandem will give the goliaths of U.S. telecommunications a good fight that will benefit customers. That sums up the message of SoftBank's big boss Masayoshi Son who has presented his case before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The 42nd richest man in the world who snatched Sprint in a multi-billion dollar deal in 2013, went stateside this year to spearhead his campaign that will convince regulators in the country no to block the merger of the third and fourth biggest carriers in the U.S. Son has delivered a meaty presentation in Washington backed up by a slide show to emphasize his point.
"It's not the case that American consumers pay more because Americans use more data," said Son.
"We have the spectrum; we have the technology. But we need scale efficiency to make an investment in the network.We can start a small fight but it does not scale, it does not last, it's not sustainable. We need to have a real fight - a long and deep and heavy fight. And for that we need scale."
Son believes that with the tag team of Sprint and T-Mobile, it can compete with AT&T and Verizon, which control two-thirds of the wireless market.
He also emphasized the problem of the U.S., placing 15th in a list of 16 economies in terms of broadband speed but having the second most expensive offerings for consumers. The country has an average LTE speed of 6.5Mbps, just edging the Philippines where 5.3Mbps is the current average.
"Japan had the most expensive Internet before I started. As a result of our challenge, Japan became (the country with) the highest speed Internet and the lowest price," the SoftBank CEO said.
The one hour 46-slide presentation of Son also touched on broadband access based on income of families or by education levels, availability of broadband connection across the country, what SoftBank has done, and what Sprint can do to help improve the situations in the U.S.
Son centered on the technology of Softbank and how it can help turn around the wireless network situation in America. The chief executive's main selling point is how, if permitted by regulators, Sprint/T-Mobile can start a price war where consumers will be on the winning end.
Softbank's accomplishments in Japan, where it is one of the biggest ISPs, are impressive. Under his leadership, the company was able to grow its customers from 16 million to 35 million as of February this year, outgrowing rivals.
The Federal Trade Commission and other regulators now need to balance if indeed the benefits listed by Son are enough to persuade them to give the green light to the Sprint-T-Mobile merger.
