Bill Radio wrote:
> X,
> I thought long a hard about these marketing phrases. I had to think what
> message was most heavily promoted. Before the current Cingular campaign,
> the phrase that stuck was "Rollover". What does that say? But it was
> actually too short-lived to "sink in". Their current campaign is too new.
> That's part of their problem, changing their image every few months. As
> stupid as it seems, Sprint hanging on to "Free & Clear" (or "The Clear
> Alternative to Cellular") long after its applicability, has had the effect
> that people remember it and associate it with Sprint PCS.
>
> We see many Cingular ads on nationally-broadcast programs, especially
> sports. Yes, we are at least 500 miles from Cingular coverage (Amarillo?).
> But I will give all due respect for the nation's 2nd larger carrier, even
> though they don't exist anywhere near here.
>
> But in marketing, perception is reality. What, honestly, is your image of
> Cingular?

I would have to say that in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana,
Cingular is very well respected. Most of my friends that have lived in
those areas and left have abandoned Verizon Wireless and flocked to
Cingular Wireless. Of course, because GSM is barely built out in the
upper midwest, most of the people don't know of Cingular's GSM problems
(mainly coverage on the GSM nation).

For a brief time, I had lived in a market in North Dakota which Verizon
Wireless claimed to serve, yet almost 90% of calls made were actually
through a Canadian carrier (Telus Mobility, SaskTel Mobility, or MTS
Mobility), and billing was a nightmare. But the roaming indicator,
which often indicated Verizon service until the call connected, it
actually connected to Canada's systems, and the roam indicator magically
appeared. In this same market now, where Verizon CDMA is very
unreliable, I can get better AMPS service on Verizon with my Cingular
phone (Motorola C331t) than most VZW customers can get.

But, you're right, in marketing, perception is reality. Because these
are Verizon's underserved markets, and because there is a high
outmigration rate, many people tend to think Verizon's services are the
same across the nation as they are here, and most tend to give up on
Verizon as soon as leaving.

AT&T is almost unheard of here. In fact, most people here don't realize
that AT&T Wireless exists. Most people around here have never heard of
Cricket or US Cellular. But Cingular seems to be first choice of the
carries that aren't here, but "should be".

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>Whoever comes up with the best ad about changing
>service will be a winner

Although what Bill Radio said is correct, I doubt that there is going to be a
CLEAR "winner" because of WLNP. I think that the perceptions that people have
are perceptions based on what they have, what their freind or co-worker has and
of course advertising.

I suspect a lot of churn. In 6 months it will pretty well all even out I
believe.

--
John S.
e-mail responses to - john at kiana dot net

>...Qwest: "We're still in the wireless business. Really."
>

Re-selling Sprint PCS service.

Selling your system and then buying wholesale minutes so that you can re-sell
them is not really "in the business" anymore.

It reminds me of the fiasco that MCI had a few years ago where they tried to
resell service branding it as their own. When they backed out of the deals that
they made the carrier(s) that they were using got all those customers and the
customers (sometimes) got shafted.

--
John S.
e-mail responses to - john at kiana dot net

In article <20031115075515.29211.00000267@mb-m12.aol.com>,
sexyexotiche@aol.comspamfree (John S.) wrote:

> >Whoever comes up with the best ad about changing
> >service will be a winner
>
> Although what Bill Radio said is correct, I doubt that there is going to be a
> CLEAR "winner" because of WLNP. I think that the perceptions that people have
> are perceptions based on what they have, what their freind or co-worker has
> and
> of course advertising.
>
> I suspect a lot of churn. In 6 months it will pretty well all even out I
> believe.


Hardly, WLNP will accentuate current churn trends with Verizon the
biggest winner and AT&T the biggest loser. Verizon has already chopped
the new phone prices of its most popular models. The price wars are just
beginning.

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 14:04:52 GMT, Peter Cremel <jpcremel@msn.com>
wrote:

>Hardly, WLNP will accentuate current churn trends with Verizon the
>biggest winner and AT&T the biggest loser. Verizon has already chopped

Personally, of the six major carriers, I see VZW, T-Mobile, and Nextel
benefiting -- VZW because of good network, T-Mo because of good
prices, and Nextel because of reasonably solid coverage and PTT.

The losers, IMO, will be SPCS, AT&T, and Cingular -- SPCS because of
their long history of network and CS issues (even though they *have*
improved, they haven't improved "enough", and have left a bad taste in
many mouths), and AT&T and Cingular because of customer confusion and
frustration (deteriorating TDMA coverage quality, roaming issues,
significantly reduced coverage with GSM-only phones, lack of choice in
GAIT phones, etc.) caused by their messy transitions from TDMA to GSM.

As for smaller carriers with a presence in major markets, most CDMA
carriers (ALLTEL, USCC, etc.) are likely to gain while carriers
converting to GSM (Dobson, etc.) are likely to lose; unlimited
carriers (Cricket, etc.) are likely to not be hit as hard as most
other carriers, although even they may see some customers churn,
especially to T-Mobile.

-SC
--
Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/
....
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might
be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune

John S. wrote:
>>...Qwest: "We're still in the wireless business. Really."
>>
>
>
> Re-selling Sprint PCS service.
>
> Selling your system and then buying wholesale minutes so that you can re-sell
> them is not really "in the business" anymore.
>
> It reminds me of the fiasco that MCI had a few years ago where they tried to
> resell service branding it as their own. When they backed out of the deals that
> they made the carrier(s) that they were using got all those customers and the
> customers (sometimes) got shafted.
>
> --
> John S.
> e-mail responses to - john at kiana dot net

Actually, Qwest still has its own system. I can think of at least one
location off the top of my head that has Qwest, but Sprint PCS customers
can only analog roam.

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Todd Allcock wrote:
> "Bill Radio" <Bill@MountainWirelessNOSPAM.com> wrote in message news:<vr6bqff7d1dc28@corp.supernews.com>...
>
>
>>Verizon: "Can you hear me now" =Coverage everywhere.
>>Sprint PCS; "Clear alternative to cellular" =Doesn't have static
>>Nextel: "It's how work gets done." =Work phone
>>T-Mobile: "Get More" =More minutes for your money
>>AT&T: "mMode" =Fancy features
>>Cingular: "What do you have to say" =Audible connections
>
>
> ...Qwest: "We're still in the wireless business. Really."

Ok...so Qwest used to have service in Bismarck, North Dakota. They were
still signing up wireless customers this summer (I think I know all
three of them). Anyhow, it's all confusion over what Qwest does here
now. Their Freedom plans, which are the ones based on the Sprint PCS
network do not include coverage here, yet Qwest still has coverage here.

Confusing.

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