Analysis of T-Mobile announcement to expand coverage in West
Hopper
Cingular and Western Wireless announcing plans to offer expanded coverage in
the American West.
Of all the areas in the nation, the West has the crappiest GSM coverage of
all. CDMA, driven by Alltel, Verizon Wireless, and Western Wireless, capture
most of the market here.
I've written an analysis of the situation, and I'm curious as to what the
group thinks of this.
http://www.meetmyattorney.com/cellular/archives/000302.html
The entire situation is rather surprising. I'd long figured that Western
Wireless, an ailing and poorly run company, would do *anything* to get more
customers. It currently derives a substantial portion of its revenue from
roaming agreements with AT&T and in places, Verizon Wireless.
But the expansion of GSM, mostly in the Cellular band, came as a huge shock
to me. Western Wireless currently offers TDMA, CDMA and AMPS coverage. But
by the end of 2003, they'll offer every digital technology available, save
for iDEN. And truth be told, I'd not be that surprised to find out that it's
in the works.
Hopper
--
South Dakota Cellular Reviews and Info.
Non-commercial, blunt.
http://meetmyattorney.com/cellular/
Mike
<crapfro...@meetmyattorney.com> wrote:
>I've written an analysis of the situation, and I'm curious as to what the
>group thinks of this.
>http://www.meetmyattorney.com/cellular/archives/000302.html
Very good.
FYI, tho...the Pacific Bell Mobile Services/Wireless component of
what's now Cingular has exclusively been a 1900 MHz GSM carrier.
I don't know the company's future plans for GSM frequencies, tho.
Mike
Bill Radio
This was discussed right after the news release, but more so in other
cellular newsgroups. Western is not adding any 800 MHz GSM in the very
near future. What they are doing is building a new GSM network on the
1900 MHz spectrum that T-Mobile is providing. WW already has the sites.
This is a good deal for both parties in that T-Mobile gets someone else
to complete their non-urban network, and WW gets spectrum to allow a
whole new batch of GSM roaming charges. T-Mobile will certainly get
favorable roaming rates.
WW will be adding GSM to their 800 MHz sites when the equipment becomes
more widely available. There are currently very few GSM phones capable
of roaming at 800 MHz.
Another interesting facet to this development is that this plan is in
almost direct competition with the AT&T/Cingular partnership to do the
same, in almost the same areas. The result could be a whole new world
of GSM coverage in the west!
WW is barely getting by, with their cash flow slightly negative, but
remember, WW still has a good cash position because they are the ones
who sold what is now the T-Mobile network to Duetsch Telekom.
-Bill Radio
Western U.S. Wireless Reviews & Ratings:
http://www.MountainWireless.com
"Hopper" <crapfro...@meetmyattorney.com> wrote in article
<BHAAa.10487$_t5....@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net>:
>
>
> The entire situation is rather surprising. I'd long figured that Western
> Wireless, an ailing and poorly run company, would do *anything* to get more
> customers. It currently derives a substantial portion of its revenue from
> roaming agreements with AT&T and in places, Verizon Wireless.
>
> But the expansion of GSM, mostly in the Cellular band, came as a huge shock
> to me.
[posted via phonescoop.com - free web access to the alt.cellular groups]
Hopper
"Bill Radio" <Bi...@MountainWirelessNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:vd740nr...@corp.supernews.com...
> Hop,
> This was discussed right after the news release, but more so in other
> cellular newsgroups. Western is not adding any 800 MHz GSM in the very
> near future. What they are doing is building a new GSM network on the
> 1900 MHz spectrum that T-Mobile is providing. WW already has the sites.
Yes, I missed that and didn't notice my mistake until recently. I don't get
the impression that it will just be 1900 MHz though. Here's what WW release
says:
"Under the agreements, Western Wireless will build its GSM/GPRS network
using existing 850 MHz spectrum as well as new 1900 MHz spectrum to be
purchased from T-Mobile, subject to required regulatory approvals, as part
of today's agreement."
> WW will be adding GSM to their 800 MHz sites when the equipment becomes
> more widely available. There are currently very few GSM phones capable
> of roaming at 800 MHz.
I'm under the impression that Cingular is the primary intended user of the
850 coverage, while T-Mobile the 1900 coverage. Is that a fair assessment?
Hopper
Bill Radio
How this will be deployed is still a guess. I don't know for sure what
spectrum T-Mobile will provide, but you can bet they will support a 1900
MHz-only network initially. How many 1900/800 MHz GSM phones do they
have in their customers hands?
I'm sure the WW mention of 850 MHz GSM is incidental to the agreement.
Cingular is a very good customer for WW's TDMA network, and has the
potential of being a good GSM roaming customer as well, regardless of
T-Mobile's involvement.
In areas where neither T-Mobile or WW has/will have 1900 MHz spectrum,
WW will offer GSM at 850 MHz and the carriers will do what they have to
do if they want to roam there. AT&T might be a bigger potential
roaming customer until they install their own network, but they have not
been as quick to sign GSM roaming agreements.
The AT&T/Cingular agreement may totally remove both companies' desire to
roam with the new WW network.
-Bill Radio
Western U.S. Wireless Reviews & Ratings:
http://www.MountainWireless.com
"Hopper" <crapfro...@meetmyattorney.com> wrote in article
<ZxMAa.1003509$F1.120754@sccrnsc04>:
>
>
> Yes, I missed that and didn't notice my mistake until recently. I don't get
> the impression that it will just be 1900 MHz though. Here's what WW release
> says:
>
> "Under the agreements, Western Wireless will build its GSM/GPRS network
> using existing 850 MHz spectrum as well as new 1900 MHz spectrum to be
> purchased from T-Mobile, subject to required regulatory approvals, as part
> of today's agreement."
>
>
> I'm under the impression that Cingular is the primary intended user of the
> 850 coverage, while T-Mobile the 1900 coverage. Is that a fair assessment?
>
[posted via phonescoop.com - free web access to the alt.cellular groups]
Hopper
"Bill Radio" <Bi...@MountainWirelessNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
> Hoppy,
> How this will be deployed is still a guess. I don't know for sure what
> spectrum T-Mobile will provide, but you can bet they will support a 1900
> MHz-only network initially. How many 1900/800 MHz GSM phones do they
> have in their customers hands?
I'm guessing next to none. There's more dualband Sprint phones than dualband
T-Mobile phones. In their current offerings, T-Mobile has only the C332 and
T722 from Motorola that are capable of GSM 800. They sell more phones with
GSM 900 and 1800 than GSM 800 phones.
>
> In areas where neither T-Mobile or WW has/will have 1900 MHz spectrum,
> WW will offer GSM at 850 MHz and the carriers will do what they have to
> do if they want to roam there. AT&T might be a bigger potential
> roaming customer until they install their own network, but they have not
> been as quick to sign GSM roaming agreements.
>
Which is a rather interesting component of the whole affair. I know that
back in 2001 or so, WWC signed a roaming agreement with AT&T, but don't know
how long that agreement continued. It seems to follow the old patterns of
the land-grab, strife-ridden west. The GSM trio seems to be content to work
together in the east, but not on such good terms in the west.
I get the impression, and this isn't substantiated by anything other than
what I think, that AT&T is increasingly isolated as a carrier, like Sprint
in the early days. They have indeed been slow to dabble in any sort of GSM
roaming agreement. Perhaps WWC is concerned about the further decline in
cooperation with AT&T, hence this announcement.
Hopper
TriModeMan
They are barely hanging on and appear to me to be very high risk, from
a financial standpoint. It is not at all clear they will be a
survivor. I hope they will, but I wouldn't want to bet on it.
"Hopper" <crapfro...@meetmyattorney.com> wrote in message news:<gONAa.132314$rt6.41674@sccrnsc02>...
Bill Radio
What would it take to save WW? A merger with T-Mobile? The prodigal
son returns home to take care of the parents!
-Bill Radio
trimo...@hotmail.com (TriModeMan) wrote in article
<b70b36a3.03052...@posting.google.com>:
> Go look at Western Wireless's financials and filings with the SEC.
> They are barely hanging on and appear to me to be very high risk, from
> a financial standpoint. It is not at all clear they will be a
> survivor.
Clay
to me that T-Mobile (216 million) lost significantly more money than WW (20
million) for the same period. Neither company seems to be doing particularly
well compared to verizon.
"Bill Radio" <Bi...@MountainWirelessNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:vd9ph45...@corp.supernews.com...
Clay
to me that T-Mobile (216 million) lost significantly more money than WW (20
million) for the same period. Neither company seems to be doing particularly
well compared to verizon.
"Bill Radio" <Bi...@MountainWirelessNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:vd9ph45...@corp.supernews.com...
Clay
to me that T-Mobile (216 million) lost significantly more money than WW (20
million) for the same period. Neither company seems to be doing particularly
well compared to verizon.
"Bill Radio" <Bi...@MountainWirelessNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:vd9ph45...@corp.supernews.com...
Hopper
"Cyrus Afzali" <pns...@lnubb.pbz> wrote in message
news:42u9dv8iesd8p3296...@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 28 May 2003 11:48:29 -0600, "Clay" <jo...@doe.com> wrote:
> Given T-Mobile isn't a regional carrier like WW, it stands to reason
> that in their expansion phase, they'll continue to lose money. Verizon
> Wireless is doing better because it came about following the
> combination of two companies that already had built out most of their
> infrastructure.
I think what helped Verizon Wireless was the acquisition of smaller carriers
that had an established customer base, and an existing infrastructure. They
didn't need to build from scratch. I'm of the opinion that once people get
cellular phones, they tend to keep them. They might not keep the carrier,
but they do maintain service. So, they had the initial legwork of virgin
user, so to speak, recruiting out of the way before moving into a market.
Hopper
Hopper
"Bill Radio" <Bi...@MountainWirelessNOSPAM.com> wrote in message
> TriMode,
> What would it take to save WW? A merger with T-Mobile? The prodigal
> son returns home to take care of the parents!
My theory?
1. End the insane international affairs. They're a regional carrier that
focuses in rural markets, yet they also tried an operation in Iceland.
Granted, there's a fair number of people of Icelandic descent living in
southwest Minnesota, but I don't think their ties to the mother country are
that strong.
Here's a list of international markets:
Austria
Ireland
Slovenia
Croatia
Georgia
Bolivia
Haiti
Ghana
Cote d'Ivoire
All of them except Haiti (TDMA) are GSM carriers. Most international
operations were launched late 1999 to mid early 2001. All of them are puny
carriers.
They are not complete owners in these places, and they did sell their
interest in Iceland to Islandssimi hf. The Icelandic operation goes by the
name of Tal hf. Western Wireless Int'l owned some 57% of Tal hf.
WWI? Nice acronym. It's laden with some beautiful historical implications.
2. Improve customer service. Sack the Cellular One thing. Go by Western
Wireless.
3. Better phone selection. Think Verizon is bad? Look at
http://www.cellularonewest.com phone selection.
4. Talk about coverage density, not text messaging. But also add more
features in areas where it counts: like Brookings, SD or Lincoln, NB, or
Vermillion, SD, etc... college towns.
5. Strongly work with existing customers to migrate them to new phones, and
new price plans. SMS and mobile web are expensive and wasteful from a
customer point of view. For a carrier, that means $$$.
6. Quit competing on price. In South Dakota, nobody is cheaper than Cellular
One. Focus more on mobile to mobile, and less on peak minute price.
7. Toughen the requirements to be an independent distributor. The
independent agents of Cellular One are among the most suspect and degenerate
in the entire industry. One person I know went to an independent agent who
stored her phones in a Tupperware (no joke), and worked out of her basement.
Think that impresses people? The only thing that should come out of a
Tupperware is food.
8. Start canning store reps that tell customers that "You need analog!"
There's no revenue in analog.
8a. Improve store rep training. Too many people walk into a company store
and watch two reps argue over this and that. I've seen it myself.
Hopper
TriModeMan
with a mountain of debt, no earnings or debt service ability. When it
is in this position it can't barely service debt, much less undertake
capital expenditures to remain competitive. As to a merger with
T-Mobile as was suggested here, T-Mobile appears to be in very poor
shape also. If I were to wager a bet, T-Mobile won't be an independent
company two years from now. My guess- a merger with either AT&T or
Cingular. T-Mobile's only reason it is still alive, I think, is its
ownership by D-T, which itself is not in great condition. I am a
Verizon fan, but as far as the strongest operator financially, it has
to be Alltel. Alltel is a very strong company financially, very well
managed, and has very, very good coverage in the Southeast. Alltel is
a great stock to own for the long term. Even though I own Verizon
Communications, I am very concerned that it will be very highly
leveraged (it already has a lot of debt now) if Vodaphone exercises
its right to put its interest in VZW back to Verizon Communications.
"Hopper" <crapfro...@meetmyattorney.com> wrote in message news:<ZUqBa.1034182$F1.124172@sccrnsc04>...