Description:  David Morken holds a Moto X smartphone out for inspection. “This,” he says, “is a Wi-Fi device.” Morken runs Republic Wireless, a national carrier based in Raleigh, N.C., that offers unlimited calls and texts for $5 per month, $40 if you want unlimited data. Republic keeps its prices low by avoiding something most carriers see as essential: It hasn’t built a cellular network. For customers on the road, the company rents network capacity from Sprint (S). All other Republic calls, texts, and data use Wi-Fi, which Morken says handles about 50 percent of its calls and texts and 90 percent of its data. “Wi-Fi is eating the world,” he says. “Why ignore the biggest network in the world?”

Source:  Businessweek.com

Date: Jan 02, 2014

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-02/what-wi-fis-popularity-means-for-cell-phone-carriers#r=read

Questions for Discussions:

• Why can Republic offer services at such low prices?
• Are you surprised by the limited use of cell bandwidth?
• What strategies should the managers of the big cell phone carriers be developing?