Complete the list...where does each carrier stand?

I don't think they have to be bought

 

I just read on a website that Cricket is the 9th largest provider in the US in terms of customers.

"With more than 1.387 million Cricket customers as of March 31, 2002, Leap has become the ninth largest wireless carrier in the U.S. in terms of customers."

http://www.cellular-news.com/search/index.php?term=usa

Top 9 Wireless Providers in the US

1. Verizon
2. Cingular
3. AT&T
4. Sprint
5. Nextel
6. VoiceStream
7. ALLTEL
8. US Cellular
9. Leap Wireless (Cricket)

 

If hypothetically(wink-wink), Cingular and AT&T were to say...merge (7-3-02), What would that do to those numbers in terms of their placing in that list?

 

A Cingular/AT&T merger would knock Verizon out of the number 1 spot.

Verizon has around 30 million customers I think while a Cingular/AT&T merger would have around 40 million I think but don't quote me on those numbers. However I don't see Cingular and AT&T merging not anytime soon or in the future.

 

Yeah Bobolito I don't really want AT&T and Cingular to merge either. I like both companies respectively by themselves. A Cingular/VoiceStream merger I might not mind seeing though.

 

A Cingular/Voicestream merger wouldn't bring Voiceatream anything but customers. Cingular doesn't have any GSM coverage that Voicestream reallt needs or anything, except for the Carolina, which is already and has always been a roaming agreement.

 

Talking about Verizon and not adding that many customers, I think part of that is they have set their credit standards way too high, I know of several people who have tried to sign up with them and were turned down. Anyone else notice this?

 

I have heard that their's are pretty high 'coalminer.' I know when they ask for a deposit it is much higher than everyone elses.

 

I think another reason why Verizon Wireless did so badly last quarter is repuation. Yes Verizon Wireless is known to have good coverage, but customer service wise I have heard a lot of bad things about them.

Customer service is a big issue for people and they don't want shotty customer service and rude people. Not knocking Verizon but I've heard several stories of poor customer with them, thats why I would be ireary to try them myself.

 

Maybe Triton's churn is so low because Triton autorenews their customers. The ETF would definately help lower churn.

 

The auto renew may help in SunCom (Triton PCS) having such a low churn rate but they also have over 2,000 cell sites on there network which is quite a bit given there smaller size.

Triton PCS also has an average of 150 cell sites per million people while the industry average is just 100 that has to help too

 

How were they able to get that many sites and how can they afford to run that many and still make a profit? Each sites costs anywhere between $700 and $2000 a month just in rent.

 

I have no idea how they do it and afford it Larry but they do, this month I got a little brochure in with my bill. It stated they now have over 2,000 cell sites on there network with a list of improvemeants located below it.

Triton PCS is very agressive in building new towers and they have one of the highest cell site densitys in the entire US Wireless industry. SunCom (Triton PCS) also has contiguous coverage along 377 miles of Interstate I-81 from Winchester, Va. to Kingsport, Tenn.

 

I have to admit it is impressive for such a small carrier. I can tell you that most carriers wouldn't be funded enough for that type of build-out and would lose money if they did. Maybe AT&T and their big $$ are somehow helping to fund this?