There are many question marks, of course, over how easily they will achieve integration of businesses, networks and brands - and a lurking disappointment that Nextel was not braver, using its street fighting ways to create a fourth generation network in its own right. Sprint-Nextel will remain firmly in third place in terms of customer numbers, but it stands a good chance, if recent performance is anything to go by, of being the most profitable, fast growing and creative of the cellcos, and of creating the first national US broadband wireless network into the bargain. They have huge differences - of technology, culture and customer base - but bring many strengths that a strong management should be able to combine to become more than the sum of their parts. These are two companies that have already gone a long way to turning themselves around and adopting creative strategies to compensate for their relatively small size. By contrast, the speed and decisiveness with which the (admittedly far simpler) Sprint-Nextel merger has been engineered, and the approach of the participants, throws out hope of a new vigor among the mobile operators. Though the two companies achieved market leading bulk, their marriage was one of deeply flawed operations with poor customer service records and unimaginative future technology paths.Īs such, they were representative of the US communications industry as a whole, and will face all the problems of that sector in trying to turn their ship around. The takeover of AT&T Wireless by Cingular was messy, protracted and the buyer has been saddled with an inflated purchase price and a difficult consolidation process. The difference in style and execution of the two deals symbolizes wider contrasts that will filter through to the market as the four companies involved go through their transition periods. So 2004 has started and ended with a major US cellco merger.

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