Apple this morning directly responded to a recent rumor that the company would begin planning to launch its own MVNO service in both the United States and Europe, stating that it has "not discussed and is not planning" to become its own cellular carrier in the future.
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The MVNO service would allow Apple to become its own carrier, leasing space from existing network carriers and building SIM cards that switch from network-to-network as need be. Rumors about such a service have been around for a while now, and today marks the first time that Apple has directly denied the existence of any such feature being built by the company.
BREAKING: Apple says it has not discussed & is not planning MVNO cellular service following reports saying it was planning on doing that.
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) August 4, 2015
Update 8:31 AM: Reuters shares the exact statement from an Apple spokeswoman: "We have not discussed nor do we have any plans to launch an MVNO."
Top Rated Comments
Since when does Apple respond to rumors?
When the rumor could hurt their existing relationships with carriers. Nip this one in the bud early so they don't have to do damage control later.Leasing the towers wouldn't afford them any more granular control of the iPhone ecosystem than they have now. It would not provide greater call or cellular data stability (likely the opposite). There is just no net benefit... only costs associated with leasing towers, processing customer billing, transitioning customers off existing company accounts over to Apple.
For what? Creating an even further walled-garden for the iPhone? I don't see it happening any time soon.