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Sprint And T-Mobile Headed The Wrong Direction

Sprint and T-Mobile are in the "big four" club of American carriers, but it seems Verizon and AT&T continue to grow while Sprint and T-Mobile are losing out. T-Mobile just reported that they lost 77,000 net subscribers in the third quarter and Amazon has killed the Kindle that works on the Sprint network.

The smallest of the big four, T-Mobile got a bit smaller. In their recently reported Q3 results, they revealed they lost subscribers in Q3 according to FierceWireless. The recent Sidekick fiasco is sure to hurt the carrier further. Losing 77,000 subscribers though is small potatoes compared to the half a million that Sprint lost as reported by Eric Zeman. Neither of these carriers has the coverage of Verizon and AT&T and neither really has a suite of killer devices. T-Mobile's G1 has been successful, but not enough to really grow the company. Sprint has the Pre, but that hasn't done much for the carrier.

To make matters worse, Sprint just lost one of its more popular devices, even though it isn't even a phone. FierceWireless is reporting that Amazon has pulled the plug on the Sprint Kindle and is moving to AT&T. The GSM device will be able to roam globally. Of course, if Amazon would put a WiFi radio on the Kindle, as the Barnes & Noble Nook has, users wouldn't need to be concerned about cellular coverage at all times.

It makes you wonder if these two carriers can pull out of this dive. I have always loved T-Mobile. I always had great customer service when I called and the people in their technical service department always seemed knowledgeable and eager to help, even when I was using a generic unlocked phone versus one of theirs. I was with them for over seven years and only dropped them recently when I moved to an area that they have little or no coverage in.

Both carriers need to get more coverage and hotter devices, both of which cost money. That is hard to do when your subscriber base is shrinking. At least T-Mobile is trying to woo customers with their recently announced pricing plans. We'll have to see when they report Q4 results if that is helping.

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