According to Fierce Wireless, T-Mobile has agreed to sell the wireline business the company gained as part of its acquisition of Sprint to Cogent Communications for $1. In 2004, when I was director of strategic planning for the division of Sprint that managed the wireless business, we first seriously looked at selling this asset. Over the next 10 years in that role and as vice president of corporate strategy, we considered the possibility of selling Wireline several more times, even going so far as holding exploratory conversations with potential buyers.
Each time we backed away, ostensibly because the business and the underlying assets were too essential to Sprint’s overall business. However, I think we simply suffered from some of the most common cognitive biases that lead many businesses to make bad decisions. Over the past 18 years several things have changed that enabled T-Mobile to finally make the right decision.
For starters, the wireline industry has continued to decline, and Sprint/T-Mobile’s wireline business with it. So, the wireline business, which once had been the largest and most profitable part of Sprint, had become a tiny and unprofitable part of T-Mobile. Second, the powerful individuals who strongly identified with the wireline business and challenged any attempts to divest it have moved on. Finally, and probably most importantly, I’m guessing T-Mobile’s leadership brought an outsider’s perspective that was able to cut through cognitive biases and make the right decision.