Today is the day that Industry Canada receives the first wave of submissions for its consultation on the AWS auction process. As such, it is a good day to look at a recent story on mobile wireless marketing strategies.
Earlier this week, I noticed USA Today writing about AT&T;’s upcoming launch of the Apple iPhone. According to the story, AT&T; has exclusive U.S. rights for the iPhone for five years and Apple is prohibited from developing a version for CDMA networks.
It is a move designed to keep the iPhone out of the hands of Sprint and Verizon with resultant collateral impact on TELUS, Bell and other CDMA operators in Canada. The GSM-only restriction will help drive customers to switch to AT&T.;
Of 210M cellular customers in the US, AT&T has about 62.2M (30%). Verizon has 60.7M (29%) and Sprint has 53.6M (26%).
According to Charles Golvin of Forrester Research, anybody [in the US] who wants a cellphone already has one. So, how do carriers add customers? According to Golvin,
Today’s market is not about finding new opportunities. It’s about stealing somebody else’s customers.
In a nutshell, that statement seems to explain pricing differences in looking at the Canadian versus US wireless market.
The US industry has mobile phones in 78% of households south of the border, ten percentage points ahead of Canada. Growth is still strong in Canada, while the US penetration has been approaching saturation. As a result, marketing strategies are bound to be different.
Sure, I know folks are going to point to some national penetration rates that exceed 100% – do you really believe those numbers are properly representative of more people having a cell phone?
As an aside, the iPhone is another example of Rogers continuing to reap the benefits of handset innovation coming to GSM platforms first.
Terence Corcoran of the Financial Post is moderating the session looking at competition in Canadian mobile wireless services at The 2007 Canadian Telecom Summit on June 13. Panel participants include Robert Depatie of Videotron, Dave Dobbin of Toronto Hydro Telecom, Lawson Hunter from Bell Canada and John Watson of TELUS.
The Canadian Telecom Summit opens two weeks from Monday and it is nearly sold out. Book your seat today!