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Can someone give me some insight on this???

hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 8:08 AM
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/20/atandt-reports-be ... »

AT&T is consistently rated at or near the bottom of every survey that I have seen in almost all areas, call quality, dropped calls, failure to connect calls, etc., yet they produce results like this. I am at a loss to explain this! Are there that many uneducated wireless subscribers out there??

Have at it guys/gals!!!! :-)
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llama

Apr 20, 2011, 8:18 AM
iPhone mania.
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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 8:26 AM
Can't really use that excuse anymore as Verizon now has the Iphone. Many are still stuck with their AT&T Iphones cause they're stuck in contract and won't switch to Verizon because of that.
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Jayshmay

Apr 20, 2011, 7:40 PM
In the few months that the Vzn Iphone has been out, have there been many defectors from ATT?
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nextel18

Apr 20, 2011, 8:26 PM
No. I have not seen much defectors from talking to my sources. Also, take a look at this: "AT&T activated 3.6 million iPhones in the quarter, compared with 2.7 million a year earlier." Interesting what is going on in this industry. The Iphone 3GS is one of the hot sellers because of its little price point. Of course, with the Iphone 4 on AT&T is much better in a few ways than the Iphone 4 from VZW but we do not have to go over the details. VZW and AT&T have similar price points and similar coverages. AT&T has better data speeds but Verizon has better voice coverage (in my view).
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Sturmanator365

Apr 23, 2011, 4:35 PM
Rollover
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epik

Apr 20, 2011, 9:40 AM
I've been hinting at this issue for some time on this board and on PhoneCan.

See, the issue here isn't iPhone (though that does its effects). Phones aren't even the big issue here. And as far as plans go, since AT&T is almost entirely toe-to-toe the same as Verizon in most of it's pricing, their limited data plans can't be much of a draw.

No, I think the real issue here is a mix of brand loyalty, passion, and justification.

Let me give you an alternate example.

Many people have religious preferences. But a large number of people I've encountered from the east coast to the Rocky Mountains and on to the west coast, a lot of religious people take their religious beliefs to new heights. They will defend their beliefs and their ch...
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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 9:57 AM
Awesome response!! Thanks for taking the time to write something that is well thought out. I understand all of your points but let me throw this out. Why is the wireless industry so different than any other industry?? If there was a car company that made crappy cars how long would they be able to be viable?? If there was a dentist who all of your friends and their friends told you he/she was the worse dentist ever, would you go there to get your teeth cleaned??

It is not the way I run my life. I don't make purchases or sign contracts without first doing my research. People and companies change. I have been with Verizon for about 8 years now and I am satisfied with their service and selection of phones. If however, down the line s...
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epik

Apr 20, 2011, 10:33 AM
There's something different about the wireless phone in your pocket. It's as if it were an extension of your personality or your soul. It's really an empty shell that you fill in yourself, but what you put in it must be very important to some people.

I've seen people as passionate about cars, gaming systems, bands, and more. But wireless, for me, takes the cake. When you've been yelled at, spat on, hit with a flying phone, pushed, called most anything imaginable, ganged up on by parent/kid combinations, been told you were a liar and a cheat, had your mother insulted, had your safety threatened, and even been told you were going to hell by someone passionate about their wireless service, you start to see things in a different light.

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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 10:47 AM
Amen to that!! In the end, people are free to spend their cash in the manner they see fit. Friends and family look to me for advice on mobile tech all of the time. I am very careful when I present information to them and I do not slam individual companies. If a particular carrier meets your needs then stick with them. As an example, I live in Chicago and I have many friends with AT&T. I would say that it's about a 50/50 split when you ask them how their service is. About half say that they have static, dropped calls, missed calls, calls that do not connect, etc. The other half report no problems.

I will say that I am amazed by the number of people who were unaware of how poorly AT&T rates an satisfaction surveys. Ran into that si...
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epik

Apr 20, 2011, 11:03 AM
Just as people are free to worship (or not) as they see fit... and yet, people still spend a lot of time telling others how they should be believing. And many spend a lot of time telling others why they should be on AT&T, Verizon, or otherwise. The best of people will sift through the illogical arguments and find something that works for them.

I'm pretty open-minded, myself. I encouraged my own brother to go with Boost Mobile, given his circumstances, and I have a fairly good mix of family and friends on multiple carriers. If it works best for someone's situation, and they understand the pros and cons of each carrier, they're in a good position to make a logical decision. Alas, others in the family tell me all the time how wrong I am...
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Azeron

Apr 20, 2011, 10:03 PM
Why? You said half of friends in Chicago report no issues with their service. As long as the service works for ME what do I care what others respond in a survey?
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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 10:12 PM
I agree with you. My point is that I am amazed by the fact that when presented with the evidence, people who are in the process of choosing a wireless carrier would actually chose AT&T instead of a company like Verizon or even Sprint both of which rank better than AT&T. I agree with you that regardless of what carrier a particular person has, as long as their service is working well why would they care about anyone else.
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Azeron

Apr 20, 2011, 10:00 PM
You're kidding right? Ever seen the sticker with the Bart Simpson clone pissing on a Ford or Chevy logo?
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Cosmic Spiderman

Apr 23, 2011, 5:39 PM
I don't think it is that different in ANY thing. We all want to feel like we have the best or have made the best decision. Video game console wars are the same. PC/Apple wars, Ford/Chevy, everyone feels they have to defend their purchase. And it is influenced by many factors. Press, friends, personal experience. The majority of people don't go and find the answers themselves. They don't read reports. They see everyone is getting one, so they want it too or they don't know that there is better out there. And even if there is better out there, it's too much trouble to switch. And so they drone on in there lives defending why they made the decision they did.
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wfine81

Apr 20, 2011, 10:02 PM
Lol, awesome, perfect! 😎
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james_ryan_johns

Apr 22, 2011, 10:11 AM
That could be the most intelligent thing ever said on phonescoop
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CellStudent

Apr 20, 2011, 1:36 PM
Last year:

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news ... »


Record First-Quarter Subscriber Gain. AT&T posted a net gain in total wireless subscribers of 1.9 million, the highest first-quarter total in the company's history, to reach 87.0 million in service. First-quarter net add growth reflects continued rapid adoption of smartphones and a host of connected devices such as eReaders, global positioning systems and alarm monitoring systems. Connected devices in service increased by 1.1 million in the quarter to reach 5.8 million, and retail postpaid net adds totaled 512,000 to reach 65.1 million.


First quarter last year they added 512,000 real (pos...
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nextel18

Apr 20, 2011, 6:24 PM
i like how you did this for me 🙂 thanks
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CellStudent

Apr 20, 2011, 9:44 PM
nextel18 said:
i like how you did this for me 🙂 thanks

I'm here for you. 🤤
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nextel18

Apr 21, 2011, 6:16 PM
i know.. i didnt have to do it which is a first time because i always have to do that.
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Azeron

Apr 22, 2011, 1:59 AM
Yeah. AJ usually breaks it down into Vulcan, which is great, but still takes a science manual sometimes. Cell Student gets it down to regular Joe level very well.
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nextel18

Apr 22, 2011, 12:13 PM
thats good 🙂 usually i am the one that has to do all of it.. im glad there are more people to participate
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Azeron

Apr 22, 2011, 1:56 AM
...very nice. I might have nodded my head and kept stepping, but since you once posted your surprise that I agreed with anything you posted I wanted to let you know. Take a bow.
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CellStudent

Apr 22, 2011, 12:06 PM
Well, at least some of the rest of the story:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/264793-verizon-commu ... »

Verizon exec Mr. Shammo said:

Our first quarter Wireless results once again demonstrate our ability to effectively manage growth and sustain profitability. We had a very strong quarter of device sales, with 906,000 retail postpaid customer net additions. In a period of less than eight weeks, we activated 2.2 million iPhones and in two weeks, we activated more than 260,000 of our first 4G LTE smartphone, the HTC ThunderBolt, at the premium price of $249.99.


906,000 versus 62,000 represents over 1,450%...
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CellStudent

Apr 20, 2011, 1:40 PM
hrmles1 said:
AT&T is consistently rated at or near the bottom of every survey that I have seen in almost all areas, call quality, dropped calls, failure to connect calls, etc., yet they produce results like this. I am at a loss to explain this! Are there that many uneducated wireless subscribers out there??



https://www.phonescoop.com/carriers/forum.php?fm=m&f ... »

The phone subscribers care about those metrics.

The GPS, Kindle, tablet, and vehicle tracking services don't. No one using any of these "connected devices" cares if their connection gets dropped for 15 seconds once a day.

Accordingly, AT&T's "subscriber" growth is not "phone users" growth.

If a shoddy da...
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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 7:56 PM
Thanks for the clarification. Still surprising to me though even if their growth is not the result of an increase in the number of phone users. If I was gonna activate a tablet I wouldn't do it on AT&T.
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nextel18

Apr 20, 2011, 8:25 PM
"AT&T activated 3.6 million iPhones in the quarter, compared with 2.7 million a year earlier. " 🙂

The Iphone 3GS pricing at $49.99 for a 2 year upgrade is one of the key factors of increasing sales of this great device.

Problem is now, AT&T is having their margins decline by a nice margin. (a problem investors dont like)
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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 8:44 PM
And that is the part that I do not understand. Why are Iphone activations on AT&T continuing to increase when Verizon has the Iphone?? Why would people continue to activate with AT&T when they can have the same device on a network that consistently beats AT&T in quality surveys??
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nextel18

Apr 20, 2011, 8:54 PM
Sure I’ll be happy to discuss that as I think it is very important to.
Now as far as to why AT&T increased their iphone sales are with a few reasons:
1. Differentiate
a. The ability to use your phone and surf at the same time is something special and customers are starting to see this as a huge benefit
2. Speeds
a. The AT&T network when it comes to a speed standpoint is much better and if you take a look at DATA ARPU it has been increasing. I think Ralph said that data revenue has increased over 3000% in a specific period. All because of the Iphone and smart phones being enabled on AT&T’s fast data network
3. Price
a. The 3Gs is $49.99 for a 2 year upgrade is a key because a lot of consumers don’t want to pay out t...
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allectronic

Apr 20, 2011, 9:12 PM
4. There are people who will not have Verizon because of pass practices they consider anti consumer.
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nextel18

Apr 20, 2011, 9:16 PM
Yes thats another.
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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 9:30 PM
Forgive my ignorance but what has Verizon done that can be considered anti-consumer??
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nextel18

Apr 20, 2011, 9:43 PM
i am not sure.. the other poster is the one who brought it up i didnt. 🙂
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mycool

Apr 21, 2011, 9:43 AM
hrmles1 said:
Forgive my ignorance but what has Verizon done that can be considered anti-consumer??


- They were the biggest opponent against Number Portability prior to their about-face.
- They originally did not require data on smartphones, then started to force it as a requirement.
- The Motorola v710 fiasco. The box stated OBEX as a Bluetooth profile available, Verizon had that profile disabled.
- Replaced Mobile Web (used minutes) with purchasing Megabytes.
- $1.99/mb lawsuit (they erroneously billed customers $1.99 even if they didn't use any data).
- People did not like the "VZW UI" being enforced on almost all handsets.
- $9.99 required data on most phones (the selection for non-data ph...
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Azeron

Apr 22, 2011, 1:51 AM
And they would be absolutely correct. (See V710) However, going with AT&T as the lesser of two evils? Again people, evil is still evil.
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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 9:33 PM
All valid points but I take issue with #2. It is true that AT&T's network as a whole is faster than Verizon's however those speeds are inconsistent and often unavailable when there is no 3G signal. Verizon's speeds may be slower but they are more consistent overall and more widely available.
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nextel18

Apr 20, 2011, 9:42 PM
“It is true that AT&T's network as a whole is faster than Verizon's however those speeds are inconsistent and often unavailable when there is no 3G signal. Verizon's speeds may be slower but they are more consistent overall and more widely available.”

“however those speeds are inconsistent and often unavailable when there is no 3G signal” I don’t really understand this. It is the same thing with Verizon’s data speeds and others. If there is no 3g service it will default to edge or 1x. AT&T’s edge is faster than 1x.

“Verizon's speeds may be slower but they are more consistent overall and more widely available.”

I am not sure I agree with this. i would refute it but too tired...
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hrmles1

Apr 20, 2011, 9:45 PM
Verizon has more 3G coverage than AT&T.
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deepskyblue

Apr 21, 2011, 4:42 PM
ARPU (average rate per user) and profit are both up.

There were upgrade policy changes that offset the higher subsidies on the iphone 3GS.
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nextel18

Apr 21, 2011, 6:12 PM
i know those metrics went up...

but this didnt "One blemish: wireless operating profit margin dipped from 30% a year earlier to 25.8% as the company built up promotions and other marketing efforts."

i know their upgrade policies 🙂 but margins like that decreasing isnt very good.
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CellStudent

Apr 21, 2011, 7:22 PM
deepskyblue said:
ARPU (average rate per user) and profit are both up.


It looks good because they're only giving the numbers they want to reveal.

Postpaid subscriber ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber) up 2.4 percent to $63.39, the ninth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase


Rising ARPU is good, but when the postpaid subscriber base stops growing, there are problems.

2% growth per customer coupled with 70% declines in the growth of the profitable segment...
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deepskyblue

Apr 22, 2011, 3:40 PM
To put what you're saying in perspective, this is not a "bad quarter." This is exactly what AT&T projected for their numbers for this quarter.

There were some industry "analysts" that projected huge postpaid subscriber loss.

I'd be a little curious as to what you thought this quarter would look like prior to these numbers being released.
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nextel18

Apr 23, 2011, 7:54 PM
it isnt a bad quarter but its not a great quarter as expected from a company like AT&T.

they were lucky to get a net adds in subscribers 🙂.

i thought personally they would be positive net ads. a lot of the analysts dont know what they are talking about. they thought with the iphone going away that AT&T will be in losses. i mean that could happen but not yet. next qt will be very interesting. Iphones! Verizon VS AT&T.

funny thing is, both companies lose when it comes to margins.
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nextel18

Apr 23, 2011, 7:53 PM
again CS with the great info!
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nextel18

Apr 20, 2011, 6:23 PM
believe it or not, they didnt do well this quarter. CellStudent provided some papers suggestion that so i dont have to 🙂 (Thanks CS).

Anyway, they will be facing a lot of pressures going into the future.
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