Cingular & Verizon Expereince Strong Subscriber Growth in Q4

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&issue=20060124' target='_blank'>http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&issue=20060124</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The nation's two biggest wireless phone carriers Tuesday said they notched stronger-than-expected subscriber growth last quarter, but Wall Street expects the industry to add fewer customers this year. Cingular, owned by AT&amp;T and BellSouth, added 1.8 million net customers. Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and U.K.-based Vodafone, added 2 million subscribers. Those were record sums for both, up 5.9% and 20.5%, respectively, from Q4 2004."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20060128-Subscribers.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />Does anyone else find this a little surprising? All I ever hear is how Verizon sucks because they cripple Bluetooth and nickle and dime you for everything. And Cingular, well they swallowed up AT&amp;T. Need I say more? Perhaps I'm not getting the right vibes from you guys. But I was seriously surprised to see 4 million new subscribers between these two giants.

[Kris Kumar]

I am surprised that T-Mobile has as big a subscriber base as Sprint-Nextel.

[gcherian]

The complaining comes only from the techie people who want to do coostuff with their phones and these people after complaining go to howardforums and download the programs for seem edit and things like that to make it work. This constitutes just less that 5% of the population. Where as the rest of the population chooses the provider based on the free phone they offer, friends on the service, which provider will not want a deposit from them, and which has good word among friends and relatives - in no particular order. In that category I am not surprised that the biggest players continue to get big and small players continue to lose market.

[Janak Parekh]

In addition to what gcherian said, there's a big reason Verizon and Cingular continue to grow: their networks, especially Verizon's in NY, often just work. When you're faced with cool phones + no service (e.g., T-Mobile in parts of the NY metro area outside of NYC) and okay (possibly crippled) phones + great service, it's an easy choice.

Verizon's EVDO is also very compelling if you're willing to put up with the Bluetooth and tethering limitations.

--janak

[randalllewis]

Let's do the math. Cingular has 52 million customers. I don't know the total number of unique visits Smartphone Thoughts gets, but I venture to guess it is fewer than that. And the regular posters who are or have been Cingular customers is probably a fraction with several zeros. So we just can't be a good cross section of the mobile phone market. I think the opinions posted here are generally more informed than those of the average Cingular or Verizon customer, but we present a skewed view.

From a personal point of view, I am pleased that Cingular continues to enjoy robust growth because that means they have the resources to keep improving service. Since I've been with them, the one or two dead spots in my local area that used to cause dropped calls have been fixed.

[rjm_27]

From a personal point of view, I am pleased that Cingular continues to enjoy robust growth because that means they have the resources to keep improving service. Since I've been with them, the one or two dead spots in my local area that used to cause dropped calls have been fixed.

I wish I could say the same as randallewis about Cingular actually improving on their service. I've complained to them (even back when they were AT&amp;T) and only gotten lame excuses and I've never seen any improvement in my area. But I'm probably going to be switching in the near future because their coverage in my area pretty much sucks. Too bad I'll probably have to give up having a decent smartphone just to get good service.