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6
January 2003 - With business subscribers spending
more on cellular services than consumers do, cellular
carriers are keen to increase their business subscriber
bases, according to In Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com).
A recent survey performed by the high-tech market
research firm reports that, on average, business
users spend $70 per month on cellular service
versus the $45 consumers spend. In addition, business
users talk about twice as much as consumers do.
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Corporate
contracts represent one of the weapons that cellular
carriers are employing to increase this user base. This
tool is being used successfully, and they are more popular
today than in prior years. While a greater number of
panelists surveyed by In-Stat/MDR still purchase their
phones through cellular phone stores or kiosks, one-third
stated that their companies supply them with their cellular
phones. Additionally, more than half of respondents
state that their company has selected a carrier or carriers
that all employees must use, and nearly half of respondents'
companies receive their bills and pay for all calls.
In-Stat/MDR
also found that:
- Today,
wireless panelists view AT&T Wireless and Verizon
Wireless as the best business wireless solutions providers.
- Cellular
carriers are constantly looking for new features and
services to offer users to differentiate themselves
from one another. Given a list of four different voice-oriented,
business services, panelists were most interested
in having one voice mailbox to retrieve both work
and cellular messages.
- There
is much discussion regarding bringing "Push-to-Talk"
capabilities to market, such as Nextel provides, however,
at present, the demand doesn't seem to warrant providing
the service.
Although
cellular carriers like to offer new features that will
make current users stay or might draw new users in,
they must always remember that service quality and coverage
are of paramount importance to subscribers. Mobile operators
must continually focus on improving network coverage,
and must tout this feature, if they are capable of doing
so.
This
Market Alert is drawn from the In-Stat/MDR report, "The
Battle for Business Cellular Users Rages On", which
presents results of a survey administered to In-Stat/MDR's
Wireless Internet Panel and discusses cellular carriers'
renewed focus on regaining lucrative business cellular
users. The report details Average Revenue Per User (ARPU),
Minutes of Use (MoU), the trend to corporate contracts,
demand for data services and advanced voice features,
and the qualities that business users seek when selecting
wireless providers to support their business cellular
calls.
SOURCE
Instat MDR Back
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