Comment on Trump May Launch Wireless Phone Brand
Mirshe@lemmy.world 1 day agoSee, here’s the thing when you’re the President. You can just have your FCC chair shut them down. You can actively quash literally any boundaries to being a monopoly, and nobody can do anything about it (from a legal or regulatory standpoint).
ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If he actually launches a Trump phone service, it’s going to be a MVNO that just piggy backs off the main operators’ infrastructure. It’s not like he or his idiot sons are going to buy spectrum and build towers.
He wouldn’t really be competing with T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T. He’d be competing with Boost Mobile and companies like that.
vividspecter@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Maybe they are planning to take back that spectrum they gave to Boost/Dish on a pinky-promise that they’d actually become a competitive network, during the Sprint and T-Mobile antitrust case.
Mirshe@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You’re missing the point. The admin has full control over spectrum licensing. This means Trump could easily have the FCC just revoke all other spectrum licenses for cellphone comms, and just forcibly seize those towers. Don’t look at it like it’s going to operate like a corporation, because I promise you it won’t.
TechnoCat@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Wasn’t Starlink experimenting with phone calls? Could be a deal with Elon.
ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yeah, but I doubt they’re close to having the capacity to offer full 5G service like a traditional carrier. I have T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom‘s US subsidiary) and they have a deal with Starlink but it’s (a) in beta and (b) limited in what you can do. Unless things have changed, even when it launches, it’ll be just LTE text and voice and you need a pretty modern phone.
So, it’s not like a drop in replacement for a land-based plan where you get internet and stuff. Plus, Trump and his kids aren’t going to do any of the hard work. Even before his presidency, “Trump” was just a licensing brand and now it’s a pretty shitty brand. It’s not like the family was running Trump Steaks and packing boxes for shipment or whatever.
TechnoCat@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Makes sense.