America Movil, parent of Tracfone, acquires Simple Mobile

May 11, 2012/Joe Pawlikowski

Simple Mobile in a deal worth about $100 million. Simple now joins Tracfone, Net10, and Straight Talk as Movil’s U.S. brands. A Barclay’s report notes that with the addition of Simple, America Movil now accounts for about 30 percent of U.S. prepaid subscribers. It’s unclear if this will bring any chances to Simple Mobile. It is an MVNO of the T-Mobile network, but America Movil uses spectrum from all four major carriers with its other brands. We should learn more when the deal closes, which should be in the next few months. ]]>

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4 Comments

  1. Victor on May 13, 2012 at 11:35 am

    Will this be good for Simple Customers? Will rates remain the same?



    • Joe on May 14, 2012 at 9:24 am

      It’s tough to say now, Victor. First regulators have to approve the deal. Then we can see how Movil will handle this.



  2. RogerG on May 14, 2012 at 9:57 am

    This is probably good news for consumers. Tracfone has shown itself to be an excellent low cost operator, and this move will extend their reach. It is an excellent move because they loose money on each phone they sell, so not selling phones is good.



  3. Simone C on May 15, 2012 at 10:59 pm

    @RogerG Do they actually loose money on each phone they sell, and does this apply to just Tracfone, or their subsidiaries Net10 and Straighttalk too? I was under the impression that their profit margins on phones were just minimal. If they were loosing money, it would mean having to recoup costs with their plans, and lets face it, their plans are not priced for huge profit and this would be risque considering there is no contract binding customers to them. Would be interested to know what sort of loss they are taking on handsets.
    As for Simple Mobile, will be interesting to see how the details pan out.