Many will have forgotten the Fire Phone from Amazon. A total blunder. A miss. Or maybe not. Amazon does one thing better than any company. It learns from its mistakes and come back to fight another day. That's why I've been enjoying the back and forth discussions in the media and on twitter about Amazon buying boost.
To me it's a logical move as it gives Amazon more than a BOOST. It gives them spectrum. It connects to their edge. It brings their services to wireless in many more ways and most of all it would connect their growing fleet of trucks and warehouse locations. But it would also give them something more. Once we have 5G out there, and presuming any deal to buy Boost would carry with it access to the 5G network (before they go after their own), Amazon could embed 5G radios into every Echo, Fire and delivery hub, creating a network of their own, where all their traffic is secure, encrypted and used by them. Think of this a AWS - Anywhere.
For the package delivery channel alone, its huge. They will know where their drivers, trucks, packages and delivers have happened or will happen. They can build their own alerts system to tell someone a package is about to be dropped off, or has been. When they move into PillPack to really take on the pharmacy market (boxes of vitamins come marked as PillPack, not only Amazon) they can start to deliver prescription drugs that require ID and a signature. They can also do the same with wine and spirits and likely cannabis. They can really track high value items so they don't just get dropped off, but into whose hands the package was turned over to, and while this is all doable today over other operators' networks, by doing this on a network of their own, they manage things with security and privacy in mind.
Over the past few years Amazon has been buying pieces and parts to create a teleom service. They have Mayday for support. Chime. You can make calls over your Echo. Lots of elements that with wireless spectrum can make them the fourth carrier.
Of course the FCC and DOJ will have to approve the deal, but as the DOJ wants a fourth major player, who is more major than Amazon.
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