dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
view:
topics flat nest 
Comments on news posted 2014-05-01 09:07:57: T-Mobile's latest earnings indicate that while the company's "uncarrier" marketing efforts are working to bring in new customers, the high visibility is coming at a very steep cost in terms of marketing dollars being spent. ..

page: 1 · 2 · 3 · next

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

I switched to a T-Mobile plan for a family member's international trip.

My parents are visiting Italy and T-Mobile's unlimited international data/texting intrigued me. I signed them up a few days before they were leaving. I tested out the service in our area (a city of about 90,000) and wasn't impressed with the coverage. I am currently an ATT subscriber and while I would love to switch to T-Mobile because I really do like what they're doing, their coverage in my area just doesn't suit my needs.

There are far too many dead spots and as someone who relies on good coverage I just can't see making the switch to T-Mobile from AT&T.

imanogre
join:2005-11-29
Smyrna, GA

imanogre

Member

I'm one who switched

I left ATT. My coverage wasn't as good while traveling back roads to Florida, but other than some spotty coverage in the city, I'm so glad I left ATT and all the overages. And my bill is about 20% less every month...... even more once I pay off my new HTC One M8

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

1 recommendation

gigahurtz

Premium Member

I feel the same way. The overages are such a thorn in my side. I really want to leave AT&T I just don't want to regret my decision.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Please explain

Karl Bode See Profile please explain how you draw this conclusion.
said by Karl Bode:

Most of the customers fleeing to T-Mobile came from either Verizon or Sprint

Verizon had a net gain in subs and a churn rate that's mostly flat. Since Sprint is the only major carrier to have a net loss of subs, isn't that likely where T-mobile's adds came from?
openbox9

1 recommendation

openbox9 to gigahurtz

Premium Member

to gigahurtz

Re: I switched to a T-Mobile plan for a family member's international trip.

That's T-mobile's Achilles heel. Until coverage improves, the company has to rely on marketing gimmicks for any customers outside of major metro areas.
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn to openbox9

Member

to openbox9

Re: Please explain

Read your statement. A net gain... That means over all they gained. If you look at VZW's numbers most of their customers came in the addition of new phones on current subscriber accounts.

Meaning businesses added phones and families added phones. Churn is not flat at all for them. They feed churn with "new" subs even if they are account adds.

Tmo is adding from the churn of all providers, but I believe most of the adds are Verizon and Sprint churn. Tmo is not adding many new phones on same accounts but are taking in new customers.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

My statement reads just fine. Net subscriber adds. Look at VZ's churn numbers and tell me they aren't mostly flat. Oh, and still the lowest in the industry from what I can tell.

Mr Guy
@24.183.212.x

Mr Guy to openbox9

Anon

to openbox9
said by openbox9:

Verizon had a net gain in subs and a churn rate that's mostly flat. Since Sprint is the only major carrier to have a net loss of subs, isn't that likely where T-mobile's adds came from?

Verizon net gain is subs came from tablets. They actually lost 95,000 phone subs.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx

Member

The Party Will Not Last

Son is determined to get his hands on T-Mobile and its spectrum despite every indication the government will turn him down. Still he will be able to muddy the waters enough that people will be scared to go with T-Mobile if/until the mess resolves itself.

Back when AT&T was looking to destroy T-Mobile, that too had a negative impact on T-Mobile's business as many people did not want to become AT&T customers.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05 to openbox9

Member

to openbox9

Re: I switched to a T-Mobile plan for a family member's international trip.

It all depends on your location. Here in Central PA coverage on T-Mobile is decent. Not as ubiquitous as AT&T or Verizon but good enough in the cities and smaller towns.

If anyone is thinking of switching, best bet is to get a cheap prepaid phone and try it out for a while. If it works, perfect. If not, return it and you are out the cost of service.

Mr Guy
@24.183.212.x

Mr Guy

Anon

Succeeding their way to bankruptcy

Gained 4 million subs in the last 2 quarters but still lost $171 million. That can't continue. Sorry T-Mobile lovers but they'll have to raise prices if they are to survive.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

1 recommendation

itguy05 to openbox9

Member

to openbox9

Re: Please explain

Perhaps it's from the actual data:

»www.fiercewireless.com/s ··· 14-04-24
quote:
Chaplin noted that because Verizon recorded a record 634,000 tablet postpaid net adds, Verizon actually lost 95,000 postpaid handset customers in the quarter, mainly from 3G smartphones and feature phones, compared to 336,000 handset additions in the year-ago period.
Churn on Verizon was also up in Q1. Not up by much but any increase could be the start of a trend. Verizon is pricing themselves out of the market and their arrogance is staring to catch up to them. I say this as a shareholder of Verizon. Their products are good they just need to loose the arrogance and start to actually compete.

For now, T-Mo is most likely to get my $$!
tkdslr
join:2004-04-24
Pompano Beach, FL

tkdslr to n2jtx

Member

to n2jtx

Re: The Party Will Not Last

Son can go fly a kite.. He's not getting his hands on t-mobile..

In a few more quarters, Sprint will be the number 4 carrier.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

2 recommendations

ArrayList to gigahurtz

Premium Member

to gigahurtz

Re: I switched to a T-Mobile plan for a family member's international trip.

They have plans to fill those gaps by 2016
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn to openbox9

Member

to openbox9

Re: Please explain

itguy05 summed it up nicely below.

Their churn isn't low at all, they are using tablets to prop up their numbers, you really need to rad far into the numbers because so many companies are now trying to hide everything or at the least disguise it to look better.

I blame the new execs of these companies that do that crap of burying true numbers.
gene32
join:2004-05-03
Reynoldsburg, OH

gene32

Member

I switched as well

I left Verizon for T-Mobile a few days ago. Sticking with Verizon, over the course of 2 years, my wife's Note 3 would have cost a few hundred more vs switching to TM. Verizon DOES have the superior network but man, they built it by bending customers over. After 2 years with TM, my bill will drop by $30/mo since the Note 3 will be paid for and the biggest selling point for switching to TM.....if we go over our data plan by 5 bytes, we don't get hit with a charge. On TM, they just slow you down if you go over.

Boricua
Premium Member
join:2002-01-26
Sacramuerto

Boricua to itguy05

Premium Member

to itguy05

Re: Please explain

If I wasn't on contract and have another person added on, I would've SERIOUSLY considered T-Mo even if they don't work in Mexico when I travel there.

Churn
@66.249.88.x

Churn to n2jtx

Anon

to n2jtx

Re: The Party Will Not Last

The real question will be "Can TMO keep customers after marketing expenditures reduced?" TMO is losing money on these new customers. At some point they will have to reduce marketing costs in order to make a profit. I know profit is a dirty word to many here, but without a profit, the shareholders and investors will abandon TMO and cutoff their source of funds to expand infrastructure.
gene32
join:2004-05-03
Reynoldsburg, OH

gene32 to Mr Guy

Member

to Mr Guy

Re: Succeeding their way to bankruptcy

Speaking of raising prices, I wonder what it REALLY costs to provide cell service. I recently got a cell phone for my daughter. We activated an old flip phone with PagePlusCellular for a grand total of $0. We when bought her a card that comes with 2,000 minutes that lasts a year ($80). It uses Verizon's network I believe. For $80, that's $6.66/mo and 166 minutes/mo average talk time. No contracts. Is PPC losing money on this or making a razor thin profit?
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05 to Mr Guy

Member

to Mr Guy
Really? Amazon has lost money in the vast majority of quarters they have been in business. Read it and re-read it and let it sink in.

They are loosing money by pumping every $$ into the network and that's good thing.
itguy05

itguy05 to Churn

Member

to Churn

Re: The Party Will Not Last

You do realize that stock price has 0 to do with the company right? After the initial (and additional) shares are offered there is no gain or loss to the company. They don't make or loose anything based on share price. Plenty of companies have sound financials and yet a low stock price. Plenty of companies have crap financials (Amazon) and yet have a decent stock price.

Companies raise capital for expansion via bonds, not necessarily stock sales.
itguy05

itguy05 to gene32

Member

to gene32

Re: I switched as well

I've run the #'s for us on all 4 carriers. VZW and AT&T are virtually the same. Sprint is darn near close in costs. T-Mo undercuts them by $15/mo WITH a new phone AND keeping the wife on Verizon for now. Without, the phone, it's $30 cheaper. If we move all to T-Mobile it's around $50/mo cheaper than Verizon. That's $600/year. Or an extra car payment and a half!!!

Churn
@66.249.88.x

Churn to itguy05

Anon

to itguy05

Re: The Party Will Not Last

said by itguy05:

Companies raise capital for expansion via bonds, not necessarily stock sales.

They do both.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

True but stock is not the best way to do it. It dilutes the owner's value.

Mr Guy
@24.183.212.x

Mr Guy to itguy05

Anon

to itguy05

Re: Succeeding their way to bankruptcy

They aren't pumping anything into their network. They're too busy lowballing pricing to gain customers and paying ETFs.
Mr Guy

Mr Guy to gene32

Anon

to gene32
said by gene32:

Speaking of raising prices, I wonder what it REALLY costs to provide cell service. I recently got a cell phone for my daughter. We activated an old flip phone with PagePlusCellular for a grand total of $0. We when bought her a card that comes with 2,000 minutes that lasts a year ($80). It uses Verizon's network I believe. For $80, that's $6.66/mo and 166 minutes/mo average talk time. No contracts. Is PPC losing money on this or making a razor thin profit?

PPC is MVNO not an actual carrier. They do not have to worry about buying an maintaining towers or a network among other costs REAL carriers have. They get to use Verizon's network at a lowball price the government mandates Verizon accepts.
Mr Guy

Mr Guy to itguy05

Anon

to itguy05

Re: I switched as well

and you get to enjoy a shitty network that won't work once you're outside the big cities.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05 to Mr Guy

Member

to Mr Guy

Re: Succeeding their way to bankruptcy

Really?

»investor.t-mobile.com/co ··· =4091145
Slide 14 - CAPEX - 2014 is estimated to be $4.3 - 4.6B (Billion)

CAPEX is things like towers and spectrum...

Then there's this:
»investor.t-mobile.com/fi ··· 22537289

Getting rid of GPRS/EDGE over the next year...

So, yeah I'd say they are pumping $$ into the network.
itguy05

itguy05 to Mr Guy

Member

to Mr Guy
quote:
PPC is MVNO not an actual carrier. They do not have to worry about buying an maintaining towers or a network among other costs REAL carriers have. They get to use Verizon's network at a lowball price the government mandates Verizon accepts.
Source? Cause the only government regulation is on part of Verizon's LTE spectrum. Which Verizon will not allow any MVNO or prepaid access to LTE - strictly 3G only.

Verizon or any carrier would be dumb to sell something at a loss. Guaranteed they are making $$ off Page Plus.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25 to Boricua

Member

to Boricua

Re: Please explain

They pay your ETA so that shouldnt stop you.
page: 1 · 2 · 3 · next