Topic: Wireless
T-Mobile’s Network Cleans Up in Latest OpenSignal Report – T-Mobile (Feb 8, 2017)
T-Mobile likes OpenSignal, Speedtest.net, and other network testing services and apps which rely largely on reporting from users’ devices, as opposed to the industry’s traditional reliance on professional testing services like RootMetrics. And the reasons are obvious: T-Mobile consistently puts in a much better showing in these reports than it does on the ones used by the rest of the industry. On the basis of this OpenSignal report, it looks like T-Mobile is basically tied with Verizon for the network available in most places and at the highest speeds nationally. That totally flies in the face of the reporting done by the professionals (see this RootMetrics report for H1 2016), and also goes against official coverage numbers from the other carriers.T-Mobile reasonably make the claim that the OpenSignal results are from real people actually using its networks throughout the country, not from testers only going to certain places, but self-selecting surveys of any kind are always unreliable. The reality is that T-Mobile has caught up a ton over the last few years with the two big carriers, but it’s still behind in coverage and quality, and you’ll see far more people complaining about their T-Mobile coverage than AT&T and Verizon customers do. Perception also lags reality – T-Mobile still has a reputation for poor coverage and quality even as the true gap with the big guys narrows.
via T-Mobile
Sprint Continues Year-over-Year Growth in Net Operating Revenues and Postpaid Phone Net Additions with Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2016 Results – Sprint (Jan 31, 2017)
Sprint reported its results this morning, the third of the four major US wireless carriers to do so (see AT&T and Verizon comments – T-Mobile reports on Valentine’s Day). Sprint is going through something of a renaissance lately, though only in relative terms. It’s still the smallest and least profitable of the big four, but has made lots of progress improving churn and therefore improving its customer growth numbers. The focus for both T-Mobile and Sprint is postpaid phone growth, and they’ve led the market there lately, while AT&T grows strongly in prepaid and things like connected cars, and Verizon tries to hold onto the customers it has without sacrificing margins too much through price wars. This is a fiercely competitive market, and one with relatively little growth in traditional phones. Sprint has done well to recover here lately, but has also begun to grow more strongly in connected devices (cars, machine-to-machine, and so on), while its prepaid business is falling apart (it removed over a million subscribers from its rolls in Q4 due to a change in churn standards, on top of the hundreds of thousands it reported as official prepaid subscriber losses). There’s a long way to go still for Sprint to turn itself around, not least on its network performance, where it continues to argue that it can produce the best network while spending far less on network capex than any of its competitors.
via Sprint
Verizon Exploring Combination With Cable Firm Charter Communications – WSJ (Jan 26, 2017)
I continue to be really skeptical on this deal or anything like it – the only way it could be approved is if Verizon or Charter sold or spun off their operations where the two companies compete, and even then I’m not sure there’s appetite for another mega merger between broadband and TV providers. I see the rationale – the TV business in particular is all about scale, and AT&T and Comcast tower over the rest of the market (even the new Charter has almost 6 million fewer TV subs than Comcast, and over 8m fewer than AT&T-DirecTV). Combining Verizon and Charter’s subs would approach Comcast’s scale in video, while adding wireless, which Comcast is about to add through a partnership with Verizon. But there would be massive challenges here – combining incompatible technologies for delivering voice and data services to homes, along with the cultures of a telco and cableco. And of course regulators would be likely to be very skeptical at the outset (though this administration will certainly view it more favorably than the last). I’m just not convinced this is the right way for Verizon or Charter to go, and there’s no sign that Charter is even interested.
via WSJ
Verizon grows its strong customer base profitably in 4Q – Verizon (Jan 24, 2017)
Verizon puts a brave spin on its results in its headline, but there’s a lot of detail beneath the headline which isn’t quite so positive. Having started the transition to device installment plans in wireless later than its peers, it’s still seeing declining service revenues and now expects to see that trend continue into 2018 rather than 2017 as previously forecast. Its postpaid phone net adds continue to be well down over last year’s Q4 results, and adds over 2016 as a whole were pretty anemic. Tablets are another drag on the company’s overall results as it continues to see customers who bought cheap tablets two years ago turn off their service as they exit their contractual lockups. On the wireline side, penetration of Fios TV continues to fall each quarter, while Fios broadband penetration holds up a little better. Verizon continues to be the largest carrier in the US, and a very profitable one, but as smaller competitors become more aggressive on price, there are questions about whether Verizon can maintain its margins and grow at the same time – recent evidence suggests that’ll be tough.
via Verizon
T-Mobile Delivers Strong Customer Growth Once Again | T-Mobile (Jan 5, 2017)
The headline here is strong growth, though compared to last year’s results there aren’t huge differences. Total branded net adds were actually down slightly, largely because of lower mobile broadband (tablet) net adds, while wholesale adds were up slightly (these may both have been caused by a shift of subscribers from retail to wholesale last quarter in connection with a Walmart deal), and overall net adds were up slightly too. As the traditional phone market slows down, it’s going to be tougher for T-Mobile to keep driving growth in net adds, and it doesn’t yet seem to have cracked new categories beyond phones, which continues to be my main concern about its longer term prospects.