AT&T Inc. (T) late last week filed its petition to acquire T-Mobile USA Inc. with the Federal Communications Commission. The detailed document, excluding the lack of detail from redacted information, lays out AT&T’s argument as to why the FCC should allow the nation’s No. 2 operator to acquire the No. 4 operator and thus form a new No. 1 carrier.
While AT&T has already noted many of those arguments, mainly spectrum constraints, details provided in the document provide addition insight into both AT&T’s plans as well as interesting, though perhaps slanted, insight into the current wireless market. Below are some of those insights:
--AT&T Mobility claims the deepest penetration of smartphones in the domestic market, with an independent analyst firm stating “AT&T has approximately 31 million smartphone users.”
--At the end of last year 61% of AT&T Mobility’s 68 million contract subscribers had “integrated devices,” an increase from the 46.8% at the end of 2009. Integrated devices accounted for more than 80% of AT&T Mobility’s device sales in connection with contract plans during the fourth quarter of 2010.
--AT&T Mobility has seen an 8,000% increase in data traffic between 2007 and 2010, which coincides with the launch of Apple Inc.’s iPhone device exclusively on AT&T Mobility’s network. Perhaps having that device available on multiple networks could have cut down on that dramatic data traffic growth.
--AT&T Mobility has invested $21.1 billion in capital expenditures to upgrade its wireless network between 2008 and 2010.
--AT&T Mobility claims to lack enough specturm to launch UMTS in some markets.
--AT&T Mobility claims the acquisition of T-Mobile USA will enable the “combined company to eliminate redundant control channels and promptly free up 4.8 to 10 megahertz of extra spectrum, depending on the market.
--AT&T Mobility claims channel pooling for GSM services will increase capacity by as much as 15% in some areas.
--AT&T Mobility apparently does not consider the current incarnation of T-Mobile USA to be a real competitor, and instead points to smaller rivals like MetroPCS Communications Inc., U.S. Cellular Corp., Leap Wireless International Inc., Cellular South Inc. and Cincinnati Bell Wireless, who combined have about 60% of T-Mobile USA’s customer base.
“T-Mobile USA’s absence from the marketplace will not have a significant competitive impact, particularly vis-à-vis AT&T. AT&T is more focused on Verizon and Sprint than on T-Mobile USA, and AT&T too is seeing increased competitive threats from rapidly growing mavericks like MetroPCS and Leap and other providers.”
--Despite T-Mobile USA’s lack of significance, AT&T Mobility claims that smartphones on T-Mobile USA’s network increased from 12% at the end of 2009 to 24% at the end of 2010.
--AT&T Mobility claims that MetroPCS has gained double-digit market share in a number of “major” cities and that its customer base exceeds T-Mobile USA’s “in a number of key markets.”
--AT&T Mobility claims U.S. Cellular also has s “strong double-digit shares in many markets.”
--Regional player Cellular South, though private and not having reporting its subscriber numbers, apparently has 880,000 customers and is planning on launching LTE services later this year. Cellular South announced last week plans to partner with LightSquared on a bilateral LTE roaming agreement.
--AT&T Mobility claims it’s using 40 megahertz of spectrum to support UMTS/HSPA services in some areas.
--AT&T Mobility plans to cover more than 250 million potential customers with LTE services by the end of 2013. That would be just short of the 280 million or so that Verizon Wireless plans to cover with LTE by the end of 2013.
--For those interested in degrees of efficiency, AT&T Mobility claims that LTE is 30% to 40% more spectrally efficient than HSPA+, and about 860% more efficient that GSM.
--Data usage on AT&T Mobility’s UMTS/HSPA network is causing the carrier to exhaust 10 megahertz channels in one year or less compared with 24 months in 2004.
--The acquisition of T-Mobile USA will increase AT&T Mobility’s cell site density in Chicago by up to 45%, in San Francisco and New York by up to 35%, and a confidential amount in Wichita, Kan.
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AT&T filing provides interesting industry data
Source: rcrwireless.com
Date: 04/25/2011
