Did Apple And Samsung's New Products Just Throw T-Mobile Under The Bus?

KeyBanc Capital Markets said in a note Wednesday it believes the exclusion of frequency band 71, or 600 MHz spectrum, in Apple Inc. AAPL and Samsung Electronic SSNLF device launches is a "clear negative" for competitor-peer T-Mobile US Inc TMUS.

Apple launched a string of new products earlier this week, including the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, Air Power and AirPods Wireless charging case. In late August, Samsung launched its Galaxy Note 8.

As such, the firm maintains its Overweight rating and $72 price target on shares of T-Mobile.

At the time of writing, T-Mobile shares were slumping 1.37 percent at $61.94.

Analyst Brandon Nispel noted that the company spent about $8 billion to buy this spectrum, with more capital going into building it, going forward. However, the analyst said the company might not have the ability to put it to use for at least another year.

Accordingly, the analyst said the ability to monetize investments in spectrum could be the second biggest concern after slowing subscriber growth. Clarifying the statement, the analyst said T-Mobile's investment in consumer-friendly initiatives such as free Netflix, Inc. NFLX, have allowed it to gain subscribers.

This, according to the analyst, has helped the company to invest heavily in improving network performance, allowing additional brand initiatives and subscriber growth.

"Without the ability to improve the network performance by adding 600 Mhz spectrum, this virtuous cycle could slow, in our view," the firm said.

KeyBanc believes that investors will likely view the development as a negative, causing some weakness to shares.

See also: Analysts Take The Measure Of Apple's iPhone X