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NORTH AMERICA
Donna Simek
Vice President, Sales
+1 508 785 2262
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INTERNATIONAL
Ted Howard-Jones
Vice President Sales
+44 1491 639 311
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COMPANIES WE COVER
Consumer Services - U.S.
Company Assessment reports from Current Analysis deliver a unique perspective on a company’s position in a market based on its strengths, weaknesses, momentum, and vision. Our industry-recognized analysts are trusted as providers of tactical, actionable competitive research. Their reports are based on analysis of news and product announcements, financial and stock market information, industry forecasts, technology developments, and their own in-depth knowledge of the industries they cover.
Subscription clients can access Company Assessment reports on our CurrentCOMPETE™ Intelligence Portal (See Client Access links below). They get real-time analysis of breaking industry news and events, as well as intelligence reports on companies, products, and markets. Click here to request more information. |
KEY COMPETITORS COVERED
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AT&T |
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| Despite slowing retail customer growth, AT&T has continued to grow its overall business while maintaining solid overall churn levels. In addition, its recent LTE launch puts AT&T in a better long term technology position than many of its rivals. (11/21/2011) |
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Boost Mobile |
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| Boost Mobile remains a strong player in the prepaid unlimited market with competitive pricing and its “Shrinkage” rate plan retention strategy. However, Boost will need to be more aggressive on the smartphone front. (10/17/2011) |
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Cincinnati Bell Wireless |
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| Cincinnati Bell’s bundles and its emphasis on smartphone users on its HSPA+ 4G network will help it retain high value subscribers. However, a limited footprint and small presence in the mobile broadband segment will do little to help revenue loss. (12/8/2011) |
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Clearwire |
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| Clearwire may be awash with spectrum assets, but its financial picture is less positive. Its decision to adopt LTE and Sprint’s decision to remain a strong partner will help, but the company’s WiMAX network has turned into a 'bridge technology.' (11/14/2011) |
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Facebook |
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| With over 500 million users and growing exponentially, Facebook is the world’s largest social network. It threatens to disrupt ad revenue streams from Google and other portals, and it is poised to become a consumer unified communications portal. (4/18/2011) |
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Google |
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| With an impressive Q2 2011 under its belt and its foray into the realms of social networking and mobile commerce, Google has shown that it continues to evolve beyond a search engine, but does Facebook loom as a threat for its core business? (9/19/2011) |
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Leap Wireless |
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| Leap has seen a turn in its fortunes as a result of an increased focus on smartphones and continuing to offer compelling monthly unlimited plans with improved coverage. However, it must continue to innovate in the face of stiff competition. (10/17/2011) |
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MetroPCS |
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| MetroPCS continues to raise its profile in the unlimited market with LTE and competitive rate plan structure. However, the carrier can’t get complacent on the smartphone front if it wants to continue solid growth. (1/11/2012) |
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Sprint |
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| Sprint’s results have stabilized, and it has finally announced a plan to move to an LTE network starting in 2012. However, the deployment strategy is still risky, as Sprint must depend on outside partners to supplement its own spectrum holdings. (1/10/2012) |
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T-Mobile USA |
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| Now that the AT&T deal to acquire it has fallen through, T-Mobile is stuck looking for alternative solutions. In the meantime, it must figure out a way to try and remain competitive without a clear path to an LTE network upgrade. (1/10/2012) |
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Tracfone |
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| TracFone remains the prepaid leader in the U.S. market by targeting low-end customers with its TracFone and NET10 brands, as well as mid-range customers with Straight Talk. Its retail distribution is what has given it such a broad reach. (10/17/2011) |
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U.S. Cellular |
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| U.S. Cellular will deploy its LTE network and launch service in 25% of its market base during the first quarter of 2012. The slew of Smartphones and tablets announced by the carrier will ensure interest and add relevancy to its speedier network. (1/13/2012) |
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Verizon Wireless |
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| Verizon Wireless has continued to cultivate its position as a network leader with the continued expansion of its 4G LTE network. Its LTE coverage buffer has allowed it to make the transition away from unlimited to tiered data plans. (11/16/2011) |
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Virgin Mobile USA |
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| Virgin Mobile offers prepaid service focused on value oriented demographics including youth, young adult and elderly segments. Its wide demographic mix, attractive offerings and excellent retail distribution has contributed to its success. (11/16/2011) |
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Yahoo! |
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| While the recent oust of its CEO has left the company’s future murky, Yahoo!’s media properties continued to maintain momentum evident in their engagement metrics. However, less than stellar search revenues continue to drag its bottom line. (10/31/2011) |
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AT&T |
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| AT&T’s U-verse is not only the lead offer but with nearly $170 a month in ARPU, it now generates over half of consumer wireline revenues, helping AT&T to its fifth successive quarter of consumer wireline revenue growth as of Q3 2011. (1/12/2012) |
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Cablevision |
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| Cablevision’s Bresnan integration continues successfully in the west. Meanwhile, Cablevision also focuses on a battle with FiOS in New York with a targeted win-back program that includes an iPod Touch and faster broadband speeds. (12/28/2011) |
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CenturyLink |
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| Although CenturyLink still continues to lose voice lines, losses have slowed with aggressive marketing and locally assigned responsibility. Its PRISM IPTV offer is showing promise—prompting expansion plans. The Qwest integration is on target. (12/1/2011) |
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Charter |
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| With a $302 million net loss after nine months in 2011, our perspective on Charter remains negative, but Charter is moving in the right direction with improved innovation, products, customer service and leadership changes. (12/27/2011) |
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Clearwire |
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| Clearwire’s 4G time-to-market advantage with WiMAX broadband speed evaporated with Verizon Wireless and AT&T 4G/LTE counterstrikes. Clearwire’s future lies with its wholesale partners’ plans at Sprint, Comcast, Bright House, and Time Warner Cable. (7/18/2011) |
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Comcast |
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| Even with the distractions of absorbing NBC Universal, Comcast’s cable business has moved forward at full speed and it maintains a lead position in market share, strategy and innovation despite some modest video customer losses. (7/5/2011) |
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Cox Communications |
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| Cox has abandoned building its own wireless services and a Sprint partnership, joining other MSOs with a Verizon Wireless bundle. It remains competitive with wireline service, but shows little innovation elsewhere. (12/27/2011) |
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DIRECTV |
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| In the first nine months of 2011, DIRECTV gained 537,000 subscribers, while most MSOs and DishNetwork reported losses for the same period. DIRECTV Q3 2011 ARPU was $92.21; by comparison Time Warner Cable’s Q3 2011 video ARPU was $72.99. (2/3/2012) |
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DISH Network |
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| After losing 2.4% of subscribers in the 12 months ending with Q3 2011, Dish “relaunched” itself in January 2012 with new products, more content and a new satellite broadband bundle; however, plans for using the spectrum it owns remain unclear. (2/3/2012) |
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Facebook |
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| With over 800 million users, 250 million users accessing it from mobile devices, and an evolving proposition as a unified communications portal, Facebook remains the premium social network. Google+ looks set to challenge that, however. (12/28/2011) |
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Google |
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| In Google’s business model, the user is the product, making for a highly disruptive impact on the consumer services space. New aggression in music, payments and social networking is challenging carriers on value added services. (1/19/2012) |
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Netflix |
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| Netflix remains the leader when it comes to providing over the top (OTT) content. As the company expands internationally, it has a chance to become even more threatening but it also still faces stiffening competition from other OTT providers. (1/10/2012) |
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Time Warner Cable |
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| Time Warner Cable grew its broadband and voice customer base, but lost 368,000 video subs in 2011, increasing ARPU by $5.04 for the year. But new products and aggressive promotions may make for a better 2012. (2/3/2012) |
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Verizon |
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| In Q3 2011, FiOS accounted for 59% of Verizon’s consumer revenue. FiOS also keeps operational costs lower and provides the IP infrastructure for a notable uptick in digital voice customers. Meanwhile, legacy voice and DSL continue to decline. (12/5/2011) |
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Yahoo! |
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| While the recent oust of its CEO has left the company’s future murky, Yahoo!’s media properties continued to maintain momentum evident in their engagement metrics. However, less than stellar search revenues continue to drag its bottom line. (10/31/2011) |
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CLIENT QUICK LINKS
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