Wireless Customers to Defect: Who Will Lose That Number? - Wall St. Journal

Thanks, I think you are too While I don't agree with your politics, I like your chutzpah

 

Ok guys, now go ahead and give each other a nice kiss

 

I'll have to move out of Iowa.

 

I'll kiss ya on the cheek Mafiosa style, but I'm not doing the lips, Homey the Clown don't play like that LOL

 

Honestly i think the winners/loosers fro WNP are going to be dictated by what MARKET you are talking about. I left my coment to just the Metropolitan NY area. Anyone want to make some Market specific coments.?

 

Well, my market consists of Lake and Mendocino Counties in Northwestern California (north of San Francisco), the carriers here are Edge Wireless (AT&T Affiliate operating a 1900 TDMA & GSM/GPRS Network in parts of Nor Cal, Sou Ore, SE Id and W Wyo), US Cellular (the A band carrier), Verizon Wireless (the B band carrier, formerly GTE, formerly Contel Cellular), and Cingular Wireless. I'll start with US Cellular, their coverage of the area is excellent, however, they have a VERY POOR selection of phones (they are still running TDMA here, but are due to go CDMA soon, so that will probably help a little with phone selection), NO data features, and below average customer service (they're the stingiest carrier I have every seen). Next, Verizon Wireless, coverage of this market by them is spotty at best (they are the WORST carrier here in terms of coverage), they inherited a poorly designed and poorly built network from GTE/Contel (their average tower spacing here is 15-25 miles!), and while they claimed they'd have several new sites up in this area by now, so far, only one has gone up, I think they inherited the "bastard stepchild" mentality that their previous owners had about this area (their motto here is "we never started working for you" lol), on the good side, excellent feature set, data, 1x CDMA network, and fair to good customer service. Next up, Edge Wireless. Edge is a farily new carrier to the west, they were started in 1999 by Wayne Perry and other execs from AT&T Wireless who wanted to bring big city technology to smaller cities, towns and rural areas of the west, they started service here in the summer of 2000, and have in 3 years have put up more towers than the other guys put up in the last 10, they are quickly becoming the coverage leader here, and their customer service is very personal, and very accesable, great to work with. They are currently running a 1900 TDMA and GSM/GPRS Network (though the GSM/GPRS overlay was just turned live this past April, and is not officially being sold to their market areas, though they tell me they will do so by the end of the year), their TDMA network is well built and well designed, however, other than SMS, it doesn't support any data features (it is EXACTLY like AT&T's TDMA network), their new GSM/GPRS network supports all the GSM/GPRS goodies just like the big guys (picture messaging, GPRS, etc.). Last, but certainly not least is Cingular Wireless. Cingular is very new to the area, they are using Edge's GSM/GPRS network here until they get their system built out, I have them here, and from the phones, to the features to the excellent customer service, Cingular does "fit me best" Now, as to who will be the winners and losers, I haven't decided that yet, each carrier has it's strong points, and weak points, and since our market is a rural one, they will not have WLNP here until May of next year at the soonest, and the rural carriers are even appealing that date, so who knows when we'll get it up here.

 

Hey Mike,

Do you ever think Sprint will make it there?

 

Lol I hope so, really, because everywhere I've been I have noticed Sprint covers the main routes, rail lines, etc. really well, right now only Edge and US Cellular do that here, Verizon's coverage is so spotty, even right on the 101 freeway! Sprint could really give these guys a run for their money, and I am sure they would be well received. It would also be great for the many Sprint users traveling the coast between SF and Eureka, and the many people that visit this area and the many that live here and work and commute to Sonoma County every day, where there is Sprint service. Right now, while Sprint users can roam digital on Verizon up here, features such as data (as I'm sure you are aware) do not work on Verizon, and vice versa.

 

Yeah but keep in mind that Sprint usually underestimates the amount of cell sites they need when they first build out a market. So even if they did launch service there it could still be a year or two longer before coverage is up to par. The only time I have seen Sprint go all out and apply for the necessary amount of sites to begin with is in Santa Barbara County. They really made sure they applied for a ton of sites there because they knew some would likely be rejected. It was a good strategy.

 

It's the bastard stephchild mentality they have had about this area since we were Contel Cellular of California and later GTE Mobilenet, they just don't care about this area, and they don't want to admit they even have service here. Working for Office Depot, USCC and Radio Shack/Verizon here in Ukiah, I saw first hand their poor attitude, it was very frustating to try and work with them, like towers going down for days, and nobody doing anything about it until we called up and threatened legal action, I'm not kidding about that one. When I sold US Cellular phones in the 1997-98 time, GTE would actually set their phones to Auto A because they knew that their coverage was bad. They recently closed the only store they had in the two counties, a nice, new kiosk in the new Safeway in Ukiah (and that new kiosk came only after almost 2 years without any store here, GTE used to have a full service store in Ukiah along with a kiosk in Wal-Mart), and their are only two dealers in the area that still carry them, Radio Shack in Ukiah and NextWave Electronics in Ukiah It's sad really, they could really be a force to be reckoned with here, but their poor coverage just keeps them at the bottom. The other guys, Edge and USCC have put up tons of new sites, so it isn't a problem with getting towers approved.

 

Huh? I don't know what post you're replying to here, but I never commented on anything having to do with NYC. Either way, I agree with your assumed assertion that building density in NYC causes special challenges to wireless operators.

 

That could never happen, USCC is the A band carrier, USCC is the B band one, I think there are laws against that. Besides, as poor as Verizon is here, I would not want them to leave, they are one of only two major companies here, and this area is important to them even though they'd rather not admit it. There are TONS of people who pass though here and stay here every year (this is some of the most scenic country anywhere, Vineyards, Mountains, Coastal Areas, Redwood, Forest, TONS of rivers, etc.), and a lot of people that live here and commute to Sonoma, Marin and SF to work every day, we're too close to the Bay Area (within 100 miles) for them to get rid of this area.