This article was published on September 6, 2011

Sprint’s lawsuit against AT&T hints that it will get the iPhone


Sprint’s lawsuit against AT&T hints that it will get the iPhone

Sprint has filed suit against AT&T in order to halt its merger with T-Mobile, citing competitive issues and a reduction of choices for the consumer. In his perusal of the lawsuit, The Verge’s Nilay Patel came across some interesting wording that appears to allude to the fact that Sprint will be carrying the iPhone soon.

In that lawsuit, Sprint suggests that the iPhone lent AT&T and subsequently, Verizon, a hefty competitive advantage over the 3rd place carrier. The wording of the passage seems to indicate that Sprint wants to be able to continue its arguments against the merger even after it has begun carrying the iPhone.

Apple then gave Verizon a time-to-market advantage for the iPhone, most likely because Verizon had the largest subscriber base in the United States. Sprint has had to compete without access to the iPhone for nearly five years.  The Twin Bells have had a tremendous time-to-market advantage with the iPhone.

Patel seems to think that making the argument hinge heavily on the ‘time-to-market advantage’ indicates that Sprint wants this argument to be valid even while it carries the iPhone along with AT&T and Verizon. If Sprint were to get the iPhone later this year, that ‘advantage’ argument would still be valid as it refers to the ‘pre-iPhone’ period.

This is definitely not confirmation, of course, but it does fit in nicely with recent rumors that the iPhone would be coming to Sprint soon. Are you a Sprint customer? If so, does the iPhone 5 coming to the carrier mean that you’ll switch, even in the face of a more hefty ETF?

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