While the traditional wireless landscape in the United States has consisted of AT&T and Verizon Wireless as the heavyweights and Sprint and T-Mobile as the underdogs, the divide between the carriers appears to be quickly narrowing. Sprint and T-Mobile have both introduced highly-competitive plans and promotional offerings in the fourth quarter, leading many consumers to switch carriers at a higher-than-average pace.
AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens confirmed at an investors conference on Tuesday that the carrier is facing a higher subscriber churn rate than a year ago, even despite the fact that its overall subscriber base continues to grow. In other words, AT&T is dealing with a higher number of subscription cancellations now compared to this time last year as customers opt for the more affordable competitors like Sprint and T-Mobile.
According to The Wall Street Journal and Barrons, Verizon is also feeling the pinch due to a “highly competitive and promotion-filled fourth quarter,” and it too expects to have a higher churn rate as customers flock elsewhere. Verizon cautioned that its need to offer more competitive promotions to customers will affect its EPS and overall profitability.
T-Mobile in particular continues to make impressive strides under the leadership of chief executive John Legere, who has positioned the magenta-colored company as the “Uncarrier” in the industry by eliminating several of the so-called “pain points” that relate to lengthy contracts, expensive plans, early termination fees, overage charges, upgrade programs, and confusing policies.
One thing is for certain: the increasingly competitive environment should be a win for all customers that belong to one of the big four carriers in the United States as they compete to keep and grow their subscriber base.
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Well, I just churned back to AT&T after a brief trial with T-Mobile. Love the company’s ideology, but the coverage left too much to be desired.
I went to Sprint briefly too and their voice quality was decent enough for the price their data coverage and speed is abysmal. To make matters worse I traveled to a quai-remote location for work and was greeted with no data coverage at all which made life difficult since I rely on my phone for directions when I travel.
All in all I think Sprint and T-Mobile are competitive for the price in areas of higher population density but once you get away from those areas Verizon and AT&T are still the only options.
At the very least I feel like I’ve benefitted from the price competition though and finally have a Verizon plan that meets my needs and is under $70/month with taxes included.
I really think folks will be surprised of the new coverage and the hundreds of new pops added all the time. You can always check before switching http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage.html