Alaska Airlines plans to transfer most of its behind the scenes wireless business to T-Mobile, establish a new connection between the two companies in Seattle, and illustrate the growth potential of this Bellevue based wireless operator in providing 5g services to large government and commercial customers.
T-Mobile competitor at & amp; T was a long-term wireless operator in Alaska, but T-Mobile and Alaska did not mention this fact when they announced the news on Monday morning.
Mike Katz, President of T-Mobile for business, said in an interview with geekwire: “we can serve the airlines in our hometown, so we are really excited.”. He said the two companies are equally concerned about the customer experience. Partly due to its geographical location, T-Mobile has become a major customer in Alaska to meet its own travel needs.
Alaska is headquartered in sitak, Washington, near the airport south of Seattle. Alaska CEO Ben minicucci also mentioned the common geographical location in the T-Mobile press release: “as two companies located in the Northwest Pacific, innovation is our DNA,” minicucci said in the press release.
At least initially, Alaska focused on using T-Mobile’s 5g network for its own operations, not for customer applications.
But in the long run, the companies said they would also focus on “new features, new features and perks specifically for passengers using T-Mobile.”
Alaska has provided gogo on-board Internet, including free access for T-Mobile users. Katz said the situation is not expected to change.
Katz said that after months of “rigorous” testing, Alaska decided to use T-Mobile as the preferred wireless provider. Alaska will use T-Mobile data and voice lines to connect equipment and services in the areas of ticketing, check-in, baggage tracking and other background applications and operations.
“Ultimately, the decision comes down to whether the network is performing better than the incumbents and whether they are confident of maintaining this state for many years to come,” Katz said. “This decision is self-evident.”
He said that this decision shows T-Mobile’s potential to accelerate its expansion outside the consumer market, which has driven most of the company’s growth.
The $26.5 billion merger of T-Mobile and sprint completed last year has strengthened the construction of its 5g network. Katz said that historically, T-Mobile has a market share of about 10% in large enterprises and government accounts, and sprint’s merger goal is to achieve a market share of 20% in this field within five years.
When announcing the third quarter profit, T-Mobile said that its number of enterprise customers exceeded any similar period in history, both in terms of total volume and net profit.
T-Mobile declined to disclose the financial terms or revenue expected from the transaction. The wireless operator’s shares closed at 115.63 on Monday, up 2.5%. Alaska Airlines Group closed at 50.62 points, up 4.22%.