Sprint has amazing spectrum assets in its ex-Clearwire 2500Mhz "Spark" spectrum. And before you say that Sprint doesn't have the money to build that out properly, I'm right now watching what Rogers is doing in Canada—a smaller carrier, in a larger physical country. Rogers' 2600Mhz network in Canada's major cities made a real difference in our Fastest Mobile Networks results last year.
Meanwhile, the misnamed Brightstar is like the dark energy of the U.S. wireless industry: it operates quietly in the background. It's part of an array of very low-key but powerful wireless companies in the Miami area, most notably giant virtual carrier Tracfone.
Brightstar buys phones for third-party stores and manages returns and insurance relationships. I'm a little worried by the fact that Claure has no experience managing a network, and network management is the No. 1 thing that Sprint needs right now. But he does have experience doing things on the cheap.
Without a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile, Son will have to take a new approach. He's been talking up home broadband recently. Buying a cable provider like CenturyLink (which includes elements that were once part of Sprint anyway) and creating blazing triple-play packages the way France's Iliad has done would be one idea.
Wireless consultant Tim Farrar points out another option on Twitter: making a deal with Dish to use Sprint's Clearwire spectrum along with Dish's own spectrum for another home broadband play. We need more competition in home broadband, and if Son really has the "thousand-year plan" he has often touted, bringing true competition to home broadband would put him in a better position with regulators for later deals.
Or how about white spaces? Just as it enabled ItsOn's radical new wireless billing system and then reaped the benefits in its new Virgin Custom plans, Sprint could become a lab for new white-space wireless technologies and be the first to profit from them.
What's clear is that Son is going to have to bring aggression, wit, and creativity to reviving Sprint. With T-Mobile still in the game, he'll have some intense competition. This doesn't mean Sprint is doomed—it just means Sprint needs to think out of the box. Is Son up to the challenge? I hope so.
PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.