Berner

ok, now this is going to be a little one sided and bias cause it was sent out from verizon as a company wide email but the numbers dont lie. just thought it was a good comparison of the two top companys.


Quick Facts About ‘new’ Cingular

Employees: 68,000 (VZW has 46,000)

Subscribers: 47.6 million (just 3 million ahead of VZW)

Markets served: Went from 83 of top 100 markets, to 100/100 (VZW 98/100)

Direct Stores: 2,745 (expected to close at least 500)



How the Merger Affects ‘new’ Cingular Customers

• Launched significant ad campaign (Raising the Bar) explaining the transition (Cingular will loose the rights to the AT&T Wireless name in 6 months)

• To get Rollover minutes, AT&T Wireless customers must migrate to a Cingular plan. According to their website a plan is in the works to make Rollover available to AT&T Wireless customers by the holiday season

• Cingular is giving $50 incentives for contract renewals

• They plan to consolidate price plans from 100 to 20

• They will continue to offer $39.99/1000

• The combined customers on TDMA totals 20 million - they will be encouraged to migrate to GSM. To migrate to GSM, customers MUST obtain a new phone. Either Cingular will have to subsidize the equipment or the customer will have to pay for the new phone. Either way, it will be costly!

• Cingular and AT&T Wireless customers currently cannot use MTM when calling each other. According to their website they are working to allow it by the holiday season

• Cingular and AT&T Wireless continues to activate customers, business as usual, for now


According to Verizon Wireless Marketing and Segmentation Team

• Cingular is expected to take this transaction ‘slow and steady’ in hopes of doing things right the first time

• High priorities for Cingular are the branding of the new company, advertising, new pricing, and divestitures. Issues lower on their list are billing integration, customer service and cell site leases

• Analysts believe that it will take at least 18-24 months for Cingular to gain positive momentum. This leaves the door open for VZW (we have averaged 966,000 more Net Adds per quarter than the combined companies over the past year!)

• This pace will put us ahead of the new Cingular in less than 18 months!


*******WHY VERIZON WIRELESS OVER ‘NEW’ CINGULAR*******


VALUE

• VZW offers the option for customers to change their rate plans as their needs change; Cingular has their customers accumulate minutes they may not use\

• We offer unlimited calls to 40 million VZW customers – 1 out 4 wireless users is a VZW customer!

• As always, our customers enjoy our “Worry Free Guarantee”

• Cingular charges more for activation fees - $36 on 1 or 2 year agreements

• Cingular charges more in regulatory fees - $0.56 vs. our $0.45, and more for roaming - $0.79 to our $0.69

• VZW values its customers and rewards their loyalty by offering $100 every two years towards the purchase of equipment. Cingular rewards their customers’ loyalty with the same offer they give new customers


MTM and NETWORK

• VZW still has the largest MTM footprint (coverage). Cingular's new 'Allover' network covers 268 million POPs. Americas’ Choice covers 275 million POPs

• Cingular now has the largest MTM calling community with approximately 46 million customers
• Cingular claims to have the largest (company owned) digital voice and data network in the US (This excludes roaming partners. VZW covers 241 million POPs, Cingular covers approximately 250 million.)

• VZW won JD Power’s Network Quality Performance in 2003 – VZW has previously won more J.D. Power awards in more markets than any other carrier!

• Our CDMA technology is superior to AT&T Wireless/Cingular’s TDMA/GSM technology. CDMA has higher call capacity, better voice clarity, and data capability

• We invest $4 billion in our network each year, Cingular historically spends $1 billion

AND DID YOU KNOW…

• Data gathered by industry’s leading independent 3RD party testing company supports our claim that we maintain the nation’s best, most reliable network!

• Year after year VZW has tested ineffective call attempts and lost calls against our competitors and year after year these objective tests have supported the fact that our national network has fewer call failures than the networks of our competitors – no competitor has ever challenged these claims!

• Our national drive tests use computers making 300,000 call monthly on over 100,000 most frequently traveled roads nationwide. These tests use an apples-to-apples comparison of call failures as measured against our competitors in the tested markets. Based on the national data, VZW has the fewest call failures among all national competitors!

• VZW has received hundreds of accolades from various consumer and trade magazines, including the best rating from Consumer Reports each year

• The February 2004 issue of Consumer Reports judges VZW number 1 in overall satisfaction in all 12 markets surveyed!

• In 2003 Consumer Reports made similar findings, rating VZW as number 1 in overall satisfaction and number 1 in each of the 6 markets surveyed!

JarodL

I use verizon and theyre network is the best in the NE, but their plans and phones suck. They are more expensive then everyone else and they never release new phones. IE, theyre data plan is 3x more expensive then almost all of the other carriers. They have one BT phone that was a complete diaster and they crippled it at that. Yes, I would rather have a phone that works then one with a bunch of gadgets but Cingular and Sprint are both gaining ground, vZW needs to pull their head out of their ass and either merge with sprint or start changing their ideas. And forget about T-Mobile and Nextel, they will be gone soon enough, M&A.

chef chris

Agreed.

Seems hard to digest that they claim to spend this much on their service, yet are marginally better/even lesser than Cingular in some areas. Sounds like BS.

I've used both...my family is on Verizon(6 phones) and they are always having to call in for billing issues. Perfect example...My mom went on free mobile2mobile in 4/04...VZN still has yet to get their billing issues resolved from the switch..............OTOH, I haven't made more than one/two calls to Cingular in the past 6 years for any issues.

bimmer88

VALUE (Verizon gives the least amount of minutes for the price)

• VZW offers the option for customers to change their rate plans as their needs change; Cingular has their customers accumulate minutes they may not use\
(Cingular allows their customers to change their rate plans also so this is BS)

• As always, our customers enjoy our “Worry Free Guarantee”
(Exactly what kind of "worry free" guarantee is this that any other phone company won't offer?)

• Cingular charges more in regulatory fees - $0.56 vs. our $0.45, and more for roaming - $0.79 to our $0.69 (Roaming fees apply only if you get the local plans. Which brings me to the fact that Cingular's local plan is better because they allow you to call nationwide w/ no long distance as long as you're calling from your home calling area. For Verizon's local plan, you get charged LD charges if you call outside your home calling area)

• Cingular charges more for activation fees - $36 on 1 or 2 year agreements
(Verizon charges $35 on a 1 yr. Big difference. 2 yr contracts are usually not a good idea anyways.)

• VZW values its customers and rewards their loyalty by offering $100 every two years towards the purchase of equipment. Cingular rewards their customers’ loyalty with the same offer they give new customers. (New customers get more of an incentive than $100)

JarodL

I agree with the above, Verizon's service is the best in the NE, but their plans and attitude suck. They know they have the best coverage so they over charge. Hopefully Sprint and Cingular will catch up. I had T-Mobile last year and it was a complete joke, I wouldnt even call it a cell phone. They finally let me out of a contract after I used under 10 minutes in two consecutive months because the phone never got service.

Berner

first off, you get free ld with any plan with verizon so scratch that off your list. phone prices are right around the same for new customers with either company, so scratch that off your list too. the activation fee for a 2 year agreement with verizon is over 50% cheaper then cingualr. i couldnt tell you about changing your rate plan but if you would of read what i wrote before the info i posted you would of noticed i said this is bias.

bimmer88

That's not true. You don't get free LD on their local plans. You have to add $5 for free LD. I had Verizon myself not too long ago and got charged for calling Socal from Norcal. It's not a very good idea to sign a 2 yr contract just to save a few bucks on activation fee. Agreed... it is definitely biased.. just thought I'd point a few things out. I have a pretty good understanding of how Verizon works because I used to sell them also. We stopped just a few months back.

JarodL

phone prices are around the same, but the phones arent. compare the V710, verizons flagship phone to some of cingulars in the same range. the features arent even comparable. i wish i could have verizons service with cingular/springs phones and plans

bimmer88

Agreed. Verizon does have good coverage. I got to give them that. They have more coverage than most other companies in areas outside the city. But their phones do suck and their billing system's terrible. Some people actually do get pretty good service with GSM in their area. Those people can benefit because they can go w/ the nicer phone, better plans, etc. I guess it really depends where you are though. There are actually areas where GSM carriers have better coverage than Verizon.

JarodL

Yea, out west GSM might be better then CDMA. But in the NE for some reason Verizon seems to be the only carrier that really has their shit together. I am thinking about giving Sprint a chance.

bimmer88

It's not really just out west. Coverage is different from city to city. I'm pretty sure GSM isn't bad in the whole NE region. Even out west, GSM has it's good and bad...

Berner

how long ago was this that they were charging ld on local plans? as long as i have been working for them all plans have free ld, even the $25 one. the plans might be different depending on what region/district they are being sold in. thats the only thing i can think.

Berner

in some major populated areas gsm can definatley complare to verizons cdma. as far as anywhere outside those areas there is no comparison when it comes to hilling dead pockets and no service areas. i have the sidekick with tmobile and the think worked for maybe an hour of my whole 8 hour trip to nyc where my verizon worked the whole way out with no problem. thats with tmobile though. i know cingulars gsm coverage is much better then that.

Berner

the only thing sprint has on verizon is the phones. which actually are nothing special compared to ours. i went there the other day to compare and was not impressed at all. anywhere sprint works verizon is going to work plus some. sprint runs off of cdma 800MHz where verizon runs cdma 800MHz as well as a back up 1900MHz and analog.

Berner

if you complare a verizon and cingular coverage map, out west is actually where cdma has a larger footprint then gsm does. the midwest is where it looks like gsm prob has more coverage.

JarodL

I would stick with verizon but their data plan is 40 a month. Everyone else is under 20. As for the phones, sorry but verizon doesnt compare to sprint in phones. Verizon has one phone that is decent, the 7000. The rest are budget phones. It took verizon months to get the treo 600 out and now the 650 is coming out, we wont see that on verizon until sometime late next year probably and i dont but the whole we test our phones more so they dont have problems. the v710 was junk, that other moto phone was a mess, i forget the model number and verizons two way is a joke.

bimmer88

NJ's local plan also charges for LD... here's the link... notice the part that says domestic LD is .20 or something like that...

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...ans-LocalPlans

Also, Cingular's service actually piggbacks off of T-mobile's system on the east coast so it shouldn't be too different. On the west coast, T-mobile's system piggybacks off of Cingular's. The small exception would be the 800mhz towers and there aren't too many of those yet.

Berner

read the thread bulldog made about the v60s ptt. we are relaunching it with a handful of new phones and much better plans. there is a lot of info in there about the relaunce. as far as data plans, your right. even for me i only save $10 on unlimited data plans. the next cheepest for unlimited is $30 with tmobile though. as far as phones we have the samsung 670, lg 6100, 7000, 8000 (soon), moto 710 (heard good and bad), and moto 265 coming nov 15th. a couple years ago we were definatley behind the times with phones but now we are right up there.

bimmer88

It's actually only $20 if you get it w/ a voice plan

Berner

true true

and verizons $45 with vioce, $49 stand alone

JarodL

actually sprints data is 15 a month. and i think cingular is around the same or under 20 as well. if verizon lowered their pricing on data i would stay with them.

primetime21

thread starter---why are u saying nextel will be out soon? I thought they had a decent amount of customers?

mikeymobiles

nextel is walkie talkie first and phone second...when verizon comes out with something similiar, and sprint has something as well..nextel wont have anything on the competition because there service sucks, and the fact that they are about 3 years late with there first camera phone is a big problem..

primetime21

verizon already made a walkie talkie it sucks, no one uses it....also I have friends with nextel that get better service than people with sprint.

YuppieCL

i'm in the NY metro area 80% of the time and in PA the rest so I cover ALOT of ground, whether it be going to The city, jersey shore, north jersey, or philly.

verizon is hands-down THE best service where I am, which is extremely important to me. maybe if i lived somewhere vzw was sub-par i'd MAYBe consider another service provider. regardless, vzw is accoladed nationwide and considered to be the best. until then, vzw STILL has the most RELIABLE network.

i'd sacrifice better service for a marginally-techier phone anyday.

anyway... GPRS and EDGE are waaaaay slower than vzw's EVDO. they can "claim" its faster for now because we're still in 1x implementation nationally until EVDO launches in a few months. 200-600kbps are the average speeds and actually costs a fraction of the price to operate as compared to out 1x network.

JarodL

So since it costs a fraction of the price are we going to see a reduction in the data costs from verizon?

suXor

All I can say is:

Cingular vs. Verizon = Price/cool handsets vs. reliability/quality of coverage

bimmer88

Well, that's not always the case. In some places Cingular works better. So not only would it be cheaper price and cool handsets but better coverage too.

Samer007

Verizon .

mikeymobiles

why should they drop prices when they are the best at something, and the market is willing to pay top dollar for better service?

JarodL

because if EVDO is cheaper then 1xrtt to run why should they charge more when their prices are already 2-3x competitors? do you know how many DATA customers verizon loses to sprint/cingular etc. and verizon isnt leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else, verizon people need to stop thinking they have no competition. in the NE they do have really good coverage, but there are a lot of other places around the country where other carriers are a lot better. as far as data, sprints data service is better then verizons, lots more features, its really not even close. mobitv, etc

mikeymobiles

Not for nothing..but when is mobiletv..going to come in handy...i rather download something with streaming video on EVDO....

and you get what you pay for...why does mercedes charge more then their competitors? because they can..they offer something that is unique...and so does verizon....realiabilty, customer service ect...

JarodL

no one is going to buy ev-do if its 100 a month. mercedes charge more then their competitors?? uhh, first mercedes charges about the same for their cars as their competitors do, M5 and E55 and RS6 are about the same. That comment makes no sense, and mercedes quality sucks in the last five years, so thats a terrible example. Their service centers suck, everything. Verizon and their employees need to stop thinking they are untouchable and their phones and service is 100x bigger and better and they are the best and no one can touch them. They are no microsoft, or even closely resemble a monopoly. They dont offer a unique product, they offer cell phone service, along with a bunch of other companies. In certain markets are they the best provider? Yes, in certain makets are they the worst? Yes. Bottum line is their data plans are priced so high it turns a lot of people away from them and by raising the prices, even if the service is faster it will turn more people away.

mikeymobiles

1. NO one said verizon was a monopoly...if anything the cingular/att merger is just great competition for verizon...I kinda like competition..gives us something to compete with and I feel that is brings more life to the wireless business

2. Peoplare willing to pay more for speed...time is money in this world and if they can do something alot quicker..people will pay and it wont be a turn off...half the people using the evdo are going to be business/corporate/goverment accounts who dont mind spending money

3. Phones; I dont think they are the best but the fact that I can make a phone call in more places and have better realiabilty is a bigger turn on then something with bluetoot...

4. I dont see how you think we are untouchable...if we though we were would we not advertise? would be not come out with newer products? would we not want to try and expand and be "BETTER" then our competitors?

JarodL

response in blue

mt6forlife

How goes getting a cable modem and TV for the same price help me when I'm away from home and need to download a 10MB file off the net?

JarodL

That wasnt the point. It was an example of the price of data for verizon compared to the price of data for a house. The point was not a lot of people are going to be willing to spend 150 a month for a cell phone with data service.

RaptorCLS

RULE OF THUMB FOR CELL PHONE BUYERS...why do some not get this?

Pick what works for you.....all that matters is where you are going to be and who has the best coverage for YOUR area. Doesnt matter the size of the company, subscribers, etc....you're not planning on buying stock are you..
I could gone on about this topic...but the above covers the main shizznit..haha

zamo

Advantage with Cingular (or any GSM carrier) with UNLOCKED phones 3+ bands

Go to any part of the world with GSM carriers, swap the chip and voilá, up and running. In many countries you can prepay calls, much cheaper than ridiculous roaming charges.

JarodL

thats great and all, but how often are many of us traveling overseas? sure it makes it easier, but like you said you can get pre paid minutes for a lot cheaper then it would cost you to roam over there.