Sam OliverThe concession by Randall Stephenson at a Fortune conference, as reported by PC World, comes as the chief executive is reportedly working behind the scenes to extend AT&T's exclusive contract with Apple.
Stephenson's comments were cryptic, at best. The CEO simply said that iPhone exclusivity with AT&T will not last forever. However, he did not elaborate.
On Friday, Verizon Wireless announced that it added 1.1 million subscribers during the last financial quarter. But during the same frame, AT&T increased its total number of customers by 1.4 million.
Many of AT&T's new customers are coming due to the exclusive iPhone contract. This week AT&T announced that more than 2.4 million iPhones were activated during the last quarter, with more than a third of those new customers.
That means of AT&T's 1.4 million new customers in the June quarter, at least 800,000 were iPhone subscribers.
AT&T's total number of customers sits at 79.6 million, which is 6.7 million higher than last year. Though it is still behind Verizon's 87.7 million total subscribers, the No. 2 carrier is gaining ground.
But without iPhone exclusivity, some believe AT&T would suffer due to alleged network superiority from Verizon Wireless. Pali Research has projected that AT&T will net less than 1 million new subscribers in 2010, compared with the 4 million it gained in 2008. The report operates under the assumption that the iPhone will leap to Verizon's network once the contract has expired.
"As the iPhone exclusivity period rolls off between AT&T Wireless and Apple, a material number of AT&T customers will flock to Verizon’s superior network," the firm stated. "We estimate that nearly a third of AT&T’s post-paid customers are being retained by AT&T primarily because of the iPhone exclusivity."
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Stephenson's comments were cryptic, at best. The CEO simply said that iPhone exclusivity with AT&T will not last forever. However, he did not elaborate.
...without iPhone exclusivity, some believe AT&T would suffer due to alleged network superiority from Verizon Wireless.
"As the iPhone exclusivity period rolls off between AT&T Wireless and Apple, a material number of AT&T customers will flock to Verizon’s superior network," the firm stated. "We estimate that nearly a third of AT&T’s post-paid customers are being retained by AT&T primarily because of the iPhone exclusivity."
Technically I'm wondering if it's mostly all about when Verizon rolls out 4G and how extensively - making the CDMA/GSM connection situation moot?
And first?!? (That would be a first)
AT&T's attempts to keep Apple as a customer reminds me of a Jigsaw-designed torture device that they need to escape from.
While AT&T has many issues, it is very nice to be able to travel and use the GSM networks all over the world seamlessly (if you can afford it )
When I was with Sprint years ago on CDMA, there seemed to be more countries with problems due to lack of CDMA. Verizon, from what I understand would have the same issue = CDMA.
So while AT&T is not very good, there are reasons why it is worth putting up with, at least for some of us...
I'm not as well-versed as others are about the nature of Verizon's network, and whether the iPhone would work (and work well) on its network currently. I'd appreciate anyone who could enlighten me on this point.
Also, when is the AT&T contract set to expire? 2010?
Finally, I agree with the premise of this article. I think AT&T service sucks, and it's only the iPhone thats keeping me with them. If the iPhone went to Verizon, I'd jump there instantly.
GTSC
Technically I'm wonder if it's mostly all about when Verizon rolls out 4G and how extensively - making the CDMA/GSM connection situation moot?
And first?? (That would be a first)
And you win the prize!