I'm back for 06 with some tidbits.
Things are changing at Cingular for 06. Especially on the front lines in customer service and in the sales teams. In customer service look for reps to stop being such sticklers for policy and creating a more positive experience. The focus will be less on stats and more on performance. cingular is tired of being at the bottom int terms of customer service. On the sales front I am hearing about more innovative customer experience focused commission format. I don't know what that means Cingular is notoriously vague. I have been really busy helping out with some new job duties that Cingular will not increase my pay for doing. Phonescoopers any predictions for Cingular's fourtunes in 06?
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Question is, will it be enough? And how much ARPU will they be willing to sacrifice for the sake of some new activations?
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I don’t think it will be enough to try to increase their not so great quarterly numbers especially from spending the $41 billion on ATTWS because they need to rebound quickly and more efficiently or else they will see their number 1 spot to be number 2 and perhaps even worse then number 2 later during the coming years. ARPU will obviously slow, voice that is, so they have to find other means to raise Data Arpu. They have to try to do more on the prepaid side and to increase that voice ARPU and Data ARpu to offset the declining in their core and overall voice ARPU. They should also raise some of their rates but add more features to it so more customers would add on but obviously pay more. Unfortunately their reputation and some of their p...
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You have some valid points. I think the whole company is looking at things differently in 06. Cingular's reputation has taken some blows and that has forced cingular to try to clean up the customer experience. the reps on the front line will be given more power. Not only more power but more incentives to do well. plus more accountability when reps do not do things correctly. Plus more training a lot more training on difficult callers. Cingular has a lot of work to do but the steps they have been making lately I feel are positive. Cingular was biting their nose off to save their face and reps took a lot of abuse.I think ARPU is going to get a lot better. Customers really like Cingular's PTT product. It has bee selling better than expected.
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Thank you for the kind words simplymarcus.
I think management needs to make drastic changes to this company or else they will be facing a lot of difficulty in the future. Just because they will be launching HSDPA and already launched push to talk means nothing if their reputation is shot and they are quarterly subscriber growth is not fairing that well. (I mean the mix, not the total ads)
Well voice ARPU overall will probably be declining soon because that is what analysts and forecasting are saying which makes sense because as the industry reaches 80% plus in penetration rate the voice plans will start to go down to fight for the remaining 20%, that is why data ARPU is very important and to try to make that up. I don’t really ca...
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I think management needs to make drastic changes to this company or else they will be facing a lot of difficulty in the future. Just because they will be launching HSDPA and already launched push to talk means nothing if their reputation is shot and they are quarterly subscriber growth is not fairing that well. (I mean the mix, not the total ads)
Well voice ARPU overall will probably be declining soon because that is what analysts and forecasting are saying which makes sense because as the industry reaches 80% plus in penetration rate the voice plans will start to go down to fight for the remaining 20%, that is why data ARPU is very important and to try to make that up. I don’t really ca...
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I did not say PTT was really popular just selling better than expected. You are right reputation is the biggest hurdle perception is everything. The good news for Cingular is consumers expectations are not being meet in the industry as a whole. A lot of people don't like their current carrier or just not blown away by heir service provider. Plus Cingular just digested ATTWS a little over a year ago and they had their own issues.
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No, I understood what you said about their push to talk product.
I really hope they can change the problems that they are facing or else they will be in a world of trouble in the future and HSDPA and push to talk or anything else wont help that at all. Just because you have a good product sometimes, you won’t do well if you have a bad reputation, which Cingular currently faces.
I really hope they can change the problems that they are facing or else they will be in a world of trouble in the future and HSDPA and push to talk or anything else wont help that at all. Just because you have a good product sometimes, you won’t do well if you have a bad reputation, which Cingular currently faces.
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I hope things change for Cingular in 2006 as well or else hey will be behind Verizon for that top spot. I think first and foremost they must think of fixing their image and whether to change their name back or make up a whole new name and identity. The next thing is to fix their coverage and roll out their hsdpa very quickly. I think they should give up on their efforts for push to talk and focus on other areas that will actually lead them in the marketplace. Like you mentioned they should fix up their sales, techs, and customer service techs very quickly. I also think they should try to do better with their prepaid units and try to increase their subscriber growth for direct ads, because as of the 4th quarter of 2005 and other quarters t...
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2 million per quarter for Verizon is a bit overstated in my opinion. Saying they will have the same numbers as a Christmas shopping season all year is a bit of a stretch.
nextel18, I don't think Cingular shares your emphasis on the number of subscribers or net adds. Push to Talk is a move designed to increase their ARPU which seems to have been more of a focus since the merger although their actions during the Christmas season may have been a reversal, temporary or not.
nextel18, I don't think Cingular shares your emphasis on the number of subscribers or net adds. Push to Talk is a move designed to increase their ARPU which seems to have been more of a focus since the merger although their actions during the Christmas season may have been a reversal, temporary or not.
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Well, based on my channel checks and other data that 2 million per quarter seems reasonable especially since during the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2005 they got 1.9 and 2 million, in the 2nd quarter they got 1.9 million subscribers, and in the 1st quarter, they only got 1.65 million subscribers. Perhaps the more reasonable based on those 4 quarters is around 1.86-1.9 million for 2006, but the difference of .14 million and .10 million subscribers isn’t that far off from my original 2 million per quarter estimate.
Unfortunately, in this business it is usually about gaining subscribers primarily from your high ARPU for voice and data with your direct adds unit, and slowly increase it with your other lower margin lower ARPU numbers on your othe...
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Unfortunately, in this business it is usually about gaining subscribers primarily from your high ARPU for voice and data with your direct adds unit, and slowly increase it with your other lower margin lower ARPU numbers on your othe...
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Does 2million adds per quarter still seem reasonable after being dropped from Radio Shack locations? I realize some will divert to corporate stores, but you know not all will.
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Yes, I still believe so, because Radio Shack always says that wireless is slowing and other things about how wireless isn’t growing anymore, even though it is. I don’t really care for Radio Shack because I don’t feel like they will help anyone let alone hurt the best national wireless carrier who continues to dominate this industry in net adds. Verizon will find other channels that will make up the difference in the loss adds from the ones they would have gained from Radio Shack.
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Industry analysts may say one thing but everyone I've talked to in Corporate is about ARPU. The reason why Orange execs were dumped in favor of blue execs after the merger was because AT&T was better at ARPU and B2B accounts.
So judging from their attitude, being #1 in subscribers is of secondary importance to getting the most out of their existing customers through offering them services that would enhance their wireless experience. That's the idea anyway
Nextel, there's more than one valid school of thought. Let's be open minded 😉
So judging from their attitude, being #1 in subscribers is of secondary importance to getting the most out of their existing customers through offering them services that would enhance their wireless experience. That's the idea anyway
Nextel, there's more than one valid school of thought. Let's be open minded 😉
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sangyup81 said:
Industry analysts may say one thing but everyone I've talked to in Corporate is about ARPU. The reason why Orange execs were dumped in favor of blue execs after the merger was because AT&T was better at ARPU and B2B accounts.
So judging from their attitude, being #1 in subscribers is of secondary importance to getting the most out of their existing customers through offering them services that would enhance their wireless experience. That's the idea anyway
Nextel, there's more than one valid school of thought. Let's be open minded 😉
If that's true, then why did Cing take an ARPU hit in Q4 in order to boost net adds?
If they were 'all about APRU', then you'd think they'd want...
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I am not sure if he knows what he is talking about because many people know that ARPU, although is important, isn’t the most important when it comes to the wireless industry and that subscriber growth is the most important. If they were all about ARPU they would be increasing it not having a decrease, as you mentioned and they would more focus on ARPU and not on gaining subscribers, however, they are struggling at both right now. I mean if you are a company like Sprint/Nextel for example, that perhaps doesn’t do quite well with net subscriber growth but does excellent with ARPU that is a different story, but you cant use that same thing when cingular struggles at both. Verizon is on the other side of that boat where it seems to be focusing ...
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Sorry, for those harsh words, but to say what you have said which is not sound or true so I had to say what I said.
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No you didn't. You went outside the bounds of a civil conversation. I didn't want to give you the same problems SForty was but now I see you bring it on yourself by being a jerk rather than just stating your facts and letting them speak for themselves.
Just because the number of subscribers is important doesn't mean ARPU isn't important. When I say Cingular for a time was concentrating on ARPU, I didn't say the number of subscribers wasn't important to them, I just said it took a back seat. Q3 numbers were bad and that's one reason why Cingular introduced lower rate plans. If you follow Cingular, they're always changing course which is one reason why alot of employees and customers get mad at them.
And for your information, I know...
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Just because the number of subscribers is important doesn't mean ARPU isn't important. When I say Cingular for a time was concentrating on ARPU, I didn't say the number of subscribers wasn't important to them, I just said it took a back seat. Q3 numbers were bad and that's one reason why Cingular introduced lower rate plans. If you follow Cingular, they're always changing course which is one reason why alot of employees and customers get mad at them.
And for your information, I know...
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I do state my facts and did it with you because I stated that ARPU numbers are down and if you claim they said they were more focused on ARPU they would have done everything in their power to raise ARPU, but that didn’t happen. I follow this industry more then many folks do on here with very good analysis and other things.
People in your area must not be the brightest because everyone knows that if you just focus on ARPU and don’t deliver on it then your credibility will be shot. I made an example if you are like a company such as sprint/Nextel who might not do so well on net adds but does excellent with ARPU then that is different, but just to focus on ARPU when your ARPU declines and isn’t the highest is a very dumb thing to do. In...
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People in your area must not be the brightest because everyone knows that if you just focus on ARPU and don’t deliver on it then your credibility will be shot. I made an example if you are like a company such as sprint/Nextel who might not do so well on net adds but does excellent with ARPU then that is different, but just to focus on ARPU when your ARPU declines and isn’t the highest is a very dumb thing to do. In...
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Actually the people who I have talked to in corporate where addressing concerns with the same thing analysts have been more then ARPU, because they need to grow by adding customers. Adding subscribers are one of the most important thing for their bottom line and if the execs said that ARPU is more important then gaining subscribers they must be outta their mind because it doesn’t make sense unless they gain so many subscribers that ARPU doesn’t matter but with cingular that isn’t the case.
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You may have a point nextel, recently things have changed.
Perhaps Q3 results were what caused the turn of events.
Perhaps Q3 results were what caused the turn of events.
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Yes, things have changed for Cingular and it’s not to the good side it is to the bad side. They are having problems with net ads from 2004, which has been decreasing especially from net direct ads. Their prepaid unit has been struggling lately to T-Mobile’s and Nextel’s boost, but then again those two are one of the best in the prepaid industry. The integration seems to be having tons of problems including some switch and tower problems causing outages and delays of problems forcing complaints and leaving by the customers. Just so many bad things more to list that it is depressing to hear.
Things need to change and if the CEO and upper management of Cingular needs to go then so were it. It is bad to pay, in my view waste, $41 billion...
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Things need to change and if the CEO and upper management of Cingular needs to go then so were it. It is bad to pay, in my view waste, $41 billion...
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nextel18 said:...
Yes, things have changed for Cingular and it’s not to the good side it is to the bad side. They are having problems with net ads from 2004, which has been decreasing especially from net direct ads. Their prepaid unit has been struggling lately to T-Mobile’s and Nextel’s boost, but then again those two are one of the best in the prepaid industry. The integration seems to be having tons of problems including some switch and tower problems causing outages and delays of problems forcing complaints and leaving by the customers. Just so many bad things more to list that it is depressing to hear.
Things need to change and if the CEO and upper management of Cingular needs to go then so were it. It is bad to
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They had plenty of spectrum to have the necessary capacity nationwide, but the reasons why they bought out ATTWS was because of their spectrum (primarily based in the 3g area so they don’t have to buy more 3g spectrum and cell sites. They had more then 10MHz of spectrum to deploy data (that isn’t 3g) so that wasn’t an issue and if you have more then 10 MHz of spectrum that is plenty of to allow proper capacity in an area to help reception. In addition, they could also bid for new spectrum that is going to be happening in June of 2006 and in other dates in the future as well and also to swap spectrum from other companies. In fact, they had so much spectrum in some areas they actually had to divest them according to the FCC’s demands. (Th...
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Nextel, it's not like Cingular couldn't spare the $41 billion. If anything, it took a competitor out of the market and it forced Verizon to lower the price of their minutes. There's also one important metric Cingular gained greatly on. ARPU. But since you think ARPU is worthless I guess you won't think the aquisition was worth anything.
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Took a competitor out of the market? Haven’t you noticed that every year Verizon wireless continues to add about 1 million net new subscribers per year? Didn’t you notice that they are only behind by less then 3 million subscribers? Have you noticed that perhaps this year or very early next year, if things continue the way they are Verizon can top Cingular? So yes, that $41 billion was a waste of money especially the way that Cingular does against its peers especially Verizon.
Verizon doesn’t care too much about ARPU because their consistent 2 million subscribers per quarter at an average 1.2% churn rate would offset any decreasing in ARPU. ARPU is not worthless, but it is worthless to a company like Cingular who should focus more o...
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Verizon doesn’t care too much about ARPU because their consistent 2 million subscribers per quarter at an average 1.2% churn rate would offset any decreasing in ARPU. ARPU is not worthless, but it is worthless to a company like Cingular who should focus more o...
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They took AT&T out of the market man. That's the competitor that they took out of the market. I'm sure Cingular was happy they didn't have to give 600 minutes for $39.99 anymore after that.
And I'm not too surprised at Verizon's numbers. If they take the #1 spot, it won't be an accident. They're very focused on taking back #1 from the top down.
And I'm not too surprised at Verizon's numbers. If they take the #1 spot, it won't be an accident. They're very focused on taking back #1 from the top down.
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They took AT&T out of the market. What are you talking about? They bought out ATTWS. AT&T is a landline provider that spun off ATTWS a long time ago so they didn’t have to fund them anymore. So how did Cingular take them out of the market? 1. AT&T spun ATTWS off and 2. Cingular bought out ATTWS.
I think you are confused my friend.
That is why I said that the $41 billion buyout of ATTWS was a very big mistake and it probably will cost them their top spot. Verizon only spends $6 billion per year in CAPEX so for the 3 years they only spent $18 billion dollars to get 18.719 million net new subscribers organically. While Cingular on the other hand for those 3 years 10.5 million new net subscribers, however, many of those subscriber...
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I think you are confused my friend.
That is why I said that the $41 billion buyout of ATTWS was a very big mistake and it probably will cost them their top spot. Verizon only spends $6 billion per year in CAPEX so for the 3 years they only spent $18 billion dollars to get 18.719 million net new subscribers organically. While Cingular on the other hand for those 3 years 10.5 million new net subscribers, however, many of those subscriber...
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nextel18 said:...
They took AT&T out of the market. What are you talking about? They bought out ATTWS. AT&T is a landline provider that spun off ATTWS a long time ago so they didn’t have to fund them anymore. So how did Cingular take them out of the market? 1. AT&T spun ATTWS off and 2. Cingular bought out ATTWS.
I think you are confused my friend.
That is why I said that the $41 billion buyout of ATTWS was a very big mistake and it probably will cost them their top spot. Verizon only spends $6 billion per year in CAPEX so for the 3 years they only spent $18 billion dollars to get 18.719 million net new subscribers organically. While Cingular on the other hand for those 3 years 10.5 million new net subscribers
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Ruff,
I am not sure why you have to stoop to that immature level now, but what he said was very vague and has basically a few meanings to me. On the internet, it is very hard to tell what someone else means unless you know how they talk and been on for quite some time with them.
I am not sure why you have to stoop to that immature level now, but what he said was very vague and has basically a few meanings to me. On the internet, it is very hard to tell what someone else means unless you know how they talk and been on for quite some time with them.
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So you are nitpicking what I post? This is a forum, not an academic journal.
So you are nitpicking what I post? This is a forum, not an academic journal.
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Not at all, but if you want to have a proper dialogue with someone it is wise to actually post what others can understand you including myself and that is why I was confused with what you said.
In forums people should be 100 percent clear of what they talk about or people wont understand them or else if you don’t want people to understand then no point of joining a forum. (By the way you doesn’t mean you it’s in general)
In forums people should be 100 percent clear of what they talk about or people wont understand them or else if you don’t want people to understand then no point of joining a forum. (By the way you doesn’t mean you it’s in general)
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