AT&T and Verizon have both moved to a tiered data plan structure. This structure has allowed them to create a more structured approach to data usage to allow more users with less data strain. U.S. Cellular has decided to follow suit.
U.S. Cellular (the 6th largest carrier in the US) will begin their tiered data plans within the next few months that will mirror AT&T and Verizon’s structure. It seems that their data plans will be capped at 2GB with any usage over this incurring extra charges.
Report from FierceWireless:
Subscriber losses continued to plague the carrier, however, and U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon said on the company’s earnings conference call that the quarter was “mixed” and subscriber results were “disappointing.” However, she noted a growing number of customers migrating to the carrier’s Belief Project plans, and said these customers are spending more money on data services. The carrier ended the period with 2.3 million Belief Project customers.
U.S. Cellular has over the first half of this year increased their smartphone portfolio with some great high end Android devices. This being said they have seen a huge subscriber loss during this time even with these new offerings.
U.S. Cellular reported net subscriber losses of 58,000 retail customers, which included a loss of 41,000 postpaid customers and 17,000 prepaid customers. The company said postpaid customers comprised 95 percent of retail customers at the end of the quarter. U.S. Cellular served 5.64 million total customers at the end of the quarter.
We have come to expect all carriers to move towards tiered data. Even with some subscriber loss the increase in revenue from data overages should increase profits. This will allow U.S. Cellular to put themselves back into the game with some increased stability.