Ability to meet customer demand matters in any competitive market, and limited spectrum resources seem to explain Verizon’s struggles to meet demand for 5G in the U.S. market.
Over the past two years, T-Mobile, with the most-capacious spectrum resources, has led net account additions, while Verizon, the most challenged, has lagged. That is why C-band assets are important for Verizon: new mid-band spectrum addresses the 5G capacity supply issue.
To be sure, there are other shapers of supply and therefore demand. The quality of 4G network performance, 5G coverage and pricing policies, plus new competitors (Dish Network and cable operators), all shape demand and could shift market shares.
AT&T and Verizon seem determined to raise prices, while T-Mobile notably is capping them. Cable operators are gaining share and might be the long-term challengers to all the mobile leaders, as they have proven to be the key competitors in the home broadband business.
As we have seen before, telcos and cable might wind up taking share from each other’s key products. Early on, the plan was for telcos to build fiber-to-home networks to take video share as cable took voice share, while holding their own in home broadband.
As both voice and video have become declining businesses, the focus shifted to home broadband and mobility services. Cable won the home broadband market share battle, while telcos owned mobility.
Now the new issue is how much share will shift as telcos take home broadband share while cable operators take mobile share.
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