Telecom Lead America: Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam on Thursday said his company is open to enter the no-contract wireless world.
Verizon CEO’s statement — at an event in New York — comes at a time when T-Mobile started celebrating the success of its “un-carrier moves” after its total customer base increased 579,000 in Q1 2013 to 34 million.
T-Mobile recently announced its no-contract schemes, offering benefits to American wireless users.
T-Mobile, in a statement on Wednesday evening said, its branded net customer additions were positive in the quarter, a significant improvement of 352,000 sequentially. Branded postpaid net customer losses improved to a loss of 199,000, a 61 percent improvement from a fourth quarter 2012 loss of 515,000.
Verizon CEO said it was pretty easy to change the model to eliminate contracts, and added that he would watch the consumer response that T-Mobile gets from its recent decision to drop contracts and phone subsidies altogether.
On March 26, T-Mobile said the Apple iPhone 5 would be available starting April 12 for $100 up front, with customers paying an additional $20 a month for two years. Other new smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the BlackBerry Z10, will be available with similar payment plans.
Though T-Mobile’s new phone plans require no long-term contract, customers would have to pay off the balance owed in order to end service prematurely.
The un-carrier move was important for T-Mobile, the No. 4 American mobile carrier by market share, which has been bleeding subscribers to Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile says branded prepaid additions of 202,000, increased sequentially from 166,000, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of branded prepaid customer additions; T-Mobile has added approximately 1.7 million branded prepaid customers over the past seven quarters.
Branded postpaid churn declined to 1.9 percent, an improvement of 60 basis points sequentially and the best branded postpaid churn results in four years.
Arvind Krishna
editor@telecomlead.com
