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[The Undude]

I'm surprized at how close the Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile share is.

[smeg36]

That is suprizing. I didn't think T-Mobile would have that much of the market. If only they could develop a better coverage area, they could take the cake. They are by far the best carrier in every area other than coverage in my opinion.

[The Undude]

T-Mobile coverage is getting better all the time, but still with annoying large "fair" or "none" gaps.

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/

[abatis]

I see those noisy public conversation sharing Nextel phones all over. It is suprising thier market share is not much bigger than T-Mo.

[smeg36]

I think they are just so annoying that you notice them more than other cell phone users, making it appear like they are everywhere. I think if there were any more of them, Nextel would get shunned out of business.

[abatis]

However MGN loves our nextel members and will suppport any MS mobile user.

[smeg36]

Naturally. I love all the i930 users. It is just the rest that annoy me. Actually, I don't think I have seen a single person using the i930 yet. Nor seen a working display of the i930. I did see a dummy of it at the Nextel shack at my local mall, and it is bi-ig.

[The Undude]

More numbers on USA wireless growth here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20060125/bs_ib...HNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Highlights...

Cingular and BellSouth added 1.8 million net customers. Verizon Wireless added 2 million subscribers. Those were record sums for both, up 5.9% and 20.5%, respectively, from Q4 2004.

The U.S. wireless industry is expected to add 24 million subscribers in '05, analysts estimate. That's up 2.56% from 23.4 million in 2004.

Cingular and Verizon likely grabbed more than half of new wireless customers in 2005. Cingular ended the year with 54.1 million customers. Verizon had 51.3 million.

Cingular said its average revenue per users, or ARPU, fell 2.2% from the year-ago quarter to $48.86.

The ARPU at Verizon Wireless likely fell 3% to $49, estimates David Barden, a Banc of America analyst.

Wireless firms hope that selling more data services, such as mobile music and text messaging, will help offset falling prices for phone calls.

Entner says wireless firms could shine in 2006 by bucking the trend of falling ARPU. "Wireless investors have resigned themselves to falling ARPU," he said. "If companies are able to stem that trend, they could create some nice buzz for themselves."

Sprint Nextel has the highest ARPU, at $64.50.

In October, Sprint Nextel said it expected to add 1.4 million customers last quarter. That would be up 44% from the 979,000 it added in Q3.

Analysts estimate T-Mobile USA added about 1 million customers in the quarter.

Alltel the distant No. 5 wireless firm, last week said it added 147,000 customers in the fourth quarter, 16% less than in the fourth quarter of 2004. It said its ARPU fell 3% to $52.13. The firm, which has 10.6 million customers, is seen as a takeover target. Verizon Wireless has been mentioned as a potential buyer.

The U.S. wireless industry has consolidated to four national players through the merger of Sprint and Nextel and through Cingular's purchase of AT&T Wireless.

On Tuesday, Cingular reported a profit of $204 million. That compared with a year-ago loss of $495 million, when it was weighed down by merger-related costs.

Neither AT&T, formerly SBC Communications, nor BellSouth includes Cingular's operating results in its quarterly results because of the joint venture's structure. That, says analysts, is one reason AT&T would like to buy all of Cingular -- or perhaps also buy BellSouth.

Vodafone, which owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, said Tuesday that it's not interested in selling its stake to Verizon Communications.

This post has been edited by The Undude: Jan 26 2006, 01:36 AM