SoftBank CEO and Sprint chairman Masayoshi Son knows that he has a lot of work to do convincing a skeptical public that his company should be allowed to gobble up T-Mobile, the so-called “Uncarrier” that has been making major waves in the wireless industry over the past year. The Wall Street Journal reports that Son now plans to go on a charm offensive to win over the American public on his proposed Sprint-T-Mobile merger and he’s going to do it in part by taking a page from T-Mobile CEO John Legere and bashing Verizon and AT&T.
Per the Journal, Son plans to be more aggressive in making his case that Verizon and AT&T are a duopolistic two-headed monster that Sprint can only challenge if it combines with T-Mobile. He’s also been more vocal this year trashing the big two carriers’ service quality and billing practices.
“Every time I make a business trip to the U.S., I am reminded how terrible connections are there,” Son said recently. “The U.S. has one of the world’s highest mobile fees.”
Although bashing Verizon and AT&T is certainly a favorite pastime in the U.S., it’s also the case that Sprint has by far the lowest customer satisfaction of any other carrier in the U.S. and also has the slowest 4G network among major carriers. While Son could get points for trashing the competition, it might not do him much good if most people think Sprint is an even worse alternative.
