Re: Excellent if it happens...
@ Peter2 I don't get it, you'd be roaming on to the network, so they would earn on it for calls their network is routing. Of course it shouldn't be cheaper for the competitor to roam than to build their own mast. But that cheaper would depend on the numbers. This is additional revenue, from your competitors.
If 10 of your customers roam onto your competitor, it's fine to pay the premium. The coverage providing operator makes money from those 10 customers, just like an incoming international roamer would. The competitor would have to bear the cost, the end user cost would be the same as your normal minutes.
Put another way, it's about monetizing the spectrum you *already* paid oodles for. If you paid extra for spectrum that is easier to provide coverage for, you'd make even more. This averages out the cost of spectrum AND cell density.
Isn't the operator rhetoric on poor rural coverage about not having enough people using the infrastructure? And if this did ever make them spend less on spectrum, I'd rather have that, better coverage and possibly lower charges, rather than the money being spent on moats and duck houses.
So I think it's great for competition, not for the competition.