AT&T losing ground in wireless phone battle with Verizon
(John Spink, AJC)
The numbers tell the story.
AT&T is losing ground in the battle for new wireless phone customers, and Verizon Wireless is only getting bigger.
According to an Associated Press report, Verizon signed 501,000 new customers to data plan contracts in the first quarter, compared with only a net gain of 187,000 new contracts for AT&T in the January to March period.
Almost all of the new AT&T contracts were for the iPad tablet, instead of the more lucrative iPhone smartphone. Companies make more money off smartphone subscribers with data plans, who often pay more than $100 monthly, than tablet subscribers, who can pay $15 to $50 a month.
Most of Verizon’s new contracts were for wireless phone customers. Verizon began selling the iPhone a year ago.
“Over the last five quarters, Verizon has added nearly three times as many contract subscribers as AT&T,” the AP report says. For perspective, the two split new subscribers nearly evenly over the previous two years.
AT&T, the first to offer the iPhone through an exclusive agreement with Apple before Verizon and others were allowed to sell it, activated more phones last quarter, but not nearly as much as in the previous quarter. The company said it activated 4.3 million iPhones in the first quarter, compared with 3.5 million in the same period a year ago, but down from 7.6 million the October-to-December quarter.
Still, AT&T posted first-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates on lower smartphone upgrade costs and an increase in wireless data sales due to the iPad. First quarter net income was $3.6 billion, or 60 cents per share, up 5 percent from $3.4 billion, or 57 cents per share, a year earlier.
Could there be a correlation between the slow growth in wireless phone customers and a recent Consumer Reports customer satisfaction survey that gave AT&T the lowest rating of any of the four major mobile carriers in the U.S.? The survey of 66,000 Consumer Reports subscribers put Verizon in the No. 1 spot, followed closely by Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T.
Or is something else at work?
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76 comments Add your comment
Richard
April 24th, 2012
2:20 pm
Goopedup
That being said, they do a pretty good job. If t-mobile or verizon were so perfect, they’d have 80% or more of the market share between them.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
TMO ,Verizon , & Sprint aren’t capable of bundling other services like Uverse and a landline together with wireless services . AT&T is the only one that also has a landline business which gives them a major competitive advantage .
D
April 24th, 2012
2:24 pm
Cobb Carrier, I would like corporate headquarters address for uverse. I having problems as well. I would never sign up for their cell phone due to horrors i have had with uverse billing. they sold me a service at a certain price and won’t honor the price.
Former CSR
April 24th, 2012
2:28 pm
I use to be a CSR for ATT DSL. I can tell you that the CSR people do want to help you, but the resources they are given are limited. Most importantly, under their system, ATT puts the CSR and customer at odds.
The moment a CSR answers, he or she is all about getting you off the phone. This isn’t because they are dumb or could care less (though those types exist in every company) it is because their priority is short call times first, not solving your issues (especially if it is going to take more than 5-10 minutes). As soon as that call goes over a certain amount of time, that CSR may be hounded by a supervisor who is monitoring call times.
The system is not set up to give great service. Then gain, you wonder why the products require so many people to have to call in the first place!
HangingOn
April 24th, 2012
2:28 pm
This is not an exaggeration…I visited the Fayetteville store last weekend. I noticed there were 8 workers and no customers. I asked the host where the basic phones were. I browsed those phones for 10+ minutes without one of workers choosing to ask me if I had any questions. There preferred to talk about google and a government conspiracy. I drove over to the Verizon, notice abt 8 workers and 7 customers. Within 3\2 mins someone acknowledged if I had any questions and explained some the phone options they had. At one time I had 5 wireless lines and a landline with ATT. I am down to just one wireless line.
Paulie
April 24th, 2012
2:29 pm
Yes, Richard, for now AT&T has landline service, but they are actively lobbying against the PSC requirement that they maintain support of it as is currently required. Basically, they want “out” of the landline business entirely. In fact if the trend continues at the current rate (AT&T losing customers, others gaining), non-AT&T providers will be at over 90% in less than 5 years.
R
April 24th, 2012
2:33 pm
“That being said, they do a pretty good job.”
Gooped up you must be an ATT contractor because the service has been so notably poor for so long it made the cover of Businessweek. They even got blasted at an I-Phone release demo where the audience called out to Jobs that the solution to his problem was Verizon …
ATT is good as an example of how NOT to provide service of ANY type, Harvard Business will probably do a case study if it hasn’t already. Readers you have been warned – DON’T signup for ANY contracts with ATT, it won’t get better and NEEDS to simply go away…
Jane
April 24th, 2012
2:34 pm
I have always used ATT for home and cell use. The past 6 months has been terrible. I will leave them as soon as my contract is up!
Mike
April 24th, 2012
2:47 pm
I currently have the iPhone 3GS with ATT and can’t wait for the next iPhone to come out. At that time I’ll be switching to Verizon because of ATT dropped calls. I can’t drive from I-75 to Buckhead without 3 dropped calls… always in the same places. ATT has had about a year to fix this problem and has made no progress. Interestingly, it started when they said they started to upgrade their network to LTE.
victoria
April 24th, 2012
3:03 pm
I agree with the reduced/poor reception. Have a cabin in Blue Ridge where I used to get great reception. Now, I can barely get a signal. Have a land line and 2 wireless plans. AT&T gets about $200 of my hard-earned money a month. As soon as the contracts expire on the wireless – adios! I’m already in the works to discontinue my land line.
Andy
April 24th, 2012
3:12 pm
Victoria- That’s interesting because I’m in Blairsville and they have actually upped the power since they converted to 4G service around here.
James
April 24th, 2012
3:29 pm
Who are these folks that keep calling and sitting on hold with customer service? Do you possibly not have a clue how to do a google search to find an answer?
I’ve been an AT&T customer since 2001 when I moved to Atlanta and dealt with customer service maybe 3 times since then. Of those times I’ve never had an issue. I honestly cannot see why so many people spend so much time on the phone when answers are easily available on the company’s website or online. Maybe the issue isn’t the company (regardless of company) but the user.
Ted
April 24th, 2012
4:10 pm
Fine James I’ll bite . Maybe its because Google , no matter how awesome it is , can’t help you with a billing problem . If your problem is equipment like a modem going out Google isn’t going to ship you one . Google also isn’t going to tell you if your service is just plain out . I’m sure people have dealt with AT&T enough to know that you had better try and fix it yourself before dealing with AT&T for an extended period of time .
Tom B
April 24th, 2012
4:39 pm
Used to do business with BellSouth Mobility…but after AT&T took over…everything went downhill. Had an AT&T cell phone from work that couldn’t receive calls in Smyrna…and AT&T ignored my neighborhood when U-Verse came out. So…I will NEVER give a dime to AT&T again! Verizon has been a MUCH better choice for me — even having to wait to get an iPhone!
Martin
April 24th, 2012
5:52 pm
Geez, I feel awful. I have been with AT&T for a decade and haven’t had any issues at all. On the other hand, I deal with corporate Verizon. Their circuits are always dropping and they can never get to root cause. I wouldn’t ever trust them for a personal phone.
Jim
April 24th, 2012
6:04 pm
After 19 years with AT&T Wireless, switched to Verizon Wireless, very good reception. Live in Midtown ATL, can see AT&T HQ, continuous dropped AT&T cell calls since last summer’s LTE network upgrade. Got a new phone, SIM cards and a AT&T Microcell tower; no improvement (still dropped calls). Finally transferred to Verizon Wireless, significant improvement, no (zero) dropped-calls in 45 days. Contract cancel fee off-set by AT&T service credits, old phone turn-in offer by Verizon and other Verizon discounts, made the transfer cost neutral. Sorry I waited so long to switch.
ATT is horrible
April 24th, 2012
9:51 pm
Perhaps Verizon doesn’t have more of the market because people like myself bought the Iphone 4 from ATT started carrying it, and are waiting on their onerous contract to run out (next month) to take their Iphone, and the other three Iphones in the house, to Verizon.
mill5
April 24th, 2012
11:25 pm
ATT sucks—when my contract runs out in 4 months, I’m going with verizon. Enough is enough.
Eric M
April 25th, 2012
3:46 am
“…not nearly as much as in the previous quarter. The company said it activated 4.3 million iPhones in the first quarter, compared with 3.5 million in the same period a year ago, but down from 7.6 million the October-to-December quarter.”
Come on now, you’re comparing the weakest quarter of the year for anything retail related to the strongest retail quarter of the year. Not to mention you’re talking about a phone that’s most likely half way through it’s product cycle before the iPhone 5 is out this summer.
And @Paulie: that app is already on iPhone and is completely flawed…assuming it’s the same one, which likely is. It compares your coverage of your location to the closest location that somebody else did the same thing. Unless you have millions of people using it, it’s completely inaccurate. Sometimes I’ll run the test on AT&T at my location and it’s comparing it to a Verizon test 1/2 a mile away and a Sprint test 4 miles away. Those distances are way too far to be comparable…and it doesn’t account for if you’re in a building or outside or any of those things that have MAJOR effects on coverage.
Paulie
April 25th, 2012
5:53 am
Sorry, Eric M – as noted, that is indeed a beta Android app. We expected a “certain crowd” to claim it was incorrect, even before the project was started, thanks for confirming that. Generally, Android apps are more solid and secure, as evidenced by the DOD’s recent decision to go with them for military use instead of the other guys (I was on the team that made that decision). FYI, I’m a veteran microwave design engineer, did a lot of the development on the networks that are in use today, wouldn’t give two toots in a windstorm for AT&T’s rickety deteriorating “cash cow” systems under any circumstances.
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Cobb Carrier
April 25th, 2012
10:22 am
FOR D:
It’s been a few years so I’m not sure the names and numbers are still the same but here’s what I have from correspondence and notes. I looked up stock information for AT&T to find the names and addresses of the Board. Include copies of your Order Form and Customer Disclosure Form, if you have them.
Randall Stephenson
Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Oficer, and President
Wayne Watts
Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel
AT&T, Inc.
208 S. Akard Street
Dallas, TX 75202
I received a call from a Cathy Morell (sp?) who handled my issues.
Other numbers to try:
Customer Care: (866) 532-5838
Fax: (904) 332-2607
Cobb Carrier, I would like corporate headquarters address for uverse. I having problems as well. I would never sign up for their cell phone due to horrors i have had with uverse billing. they sold me a service at a certain price and won’t honor the price.
Raydar Fiero
April 25th, 2012
2:56 pm
I work for an enterprise user who is “married” to AT&T. I hate them. With one or two notable exceptions, they can’t find their own butts with both hands. I have to go through “automated menu hell”, and then sit on hold for a minimum of 15 minutes in order to tell an agent that our problem still isn’t fixed. Their cell system “upgrade” has caused us untold amounts of grief and loss of coverage. Now, as the sites fail, we just switch them over to Verizon. No questions.
For the longest time, I waited for uVerse to become available in my neighborhood. It finally did, about a year after everyone else got it. Now, the telemarketers keep calling, trying to get me to sign up. I finally had to threaten their agent with legal action in order to get them to stop calling. I just can’t bring myself to make that deal with the devil.
nouverse
April 25th, 2012
5:50 pm
don’t get uverse—I’ve heard horror stories from people who signed up—go with satellite
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