AT&T Trumpets Wireless Strategy; Other Telecoms Mixed on Shared-Data

AT&T’s wireless data strategy is working and helping the company grow its wireless revenue, AT&T officials said Tuesday during the Q2 financial report. “We have confidence in our mobile Internet strategy,” Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said during a conference call. Competitors questioned whether the new data plans from AT&T and Verizon Wireless benefit subscribers, their representatives told us.

AT&T credited its current set of tiered data plans as a major contributor to the $31.3 billion in Q2 sales. Wireless data revenue rose by 19 percent over the same period last year to $6.4 billion. AT&T first introduced tiered data plans two years ago. As of June 30, 27 million of the company’s 43 million smartphone subscribers use the tiered data plans, Stephens said. Seventy percent of the tiered plan subscribers have now opted for the most expensive, high-data options, he said. AT&T added 496,000 net branded computing subscribers in last quarter from the year-ago period, raising the number in that category to 6.3 million.

AT&T last week disclosed a shared-data plan option, set to debut in late August (CD July 19 p11). The company expects adoption of the shared-data plans will be “measured,” since it will be only one of a growing number of options that still includes an unlimited data plan, Stephens said. He said the company thinks subscribers will transition to shared data “over time.” AT&T saw 0.97 percent of its wireless customers cancel subscriptions during Q2 -- the carrier’s “lowest churn ever,” Stephens said in addressing controversy about some recent wireless moves.

T-Mobile doesn’t plan to introducing a similar data package, a spokesman said. “Rather than having to account for each device on a shared family data plan, T-Mobile customers can use their existing data plan to power multiple devices, while still saving hundreds of dollars annually."

Sprint Nextel also doesn’t plan on introducing a shared-data plan. “The concept of sharing a monthly data allowance across a family of devices significantly increases the potential of a surprise monthly bill due to data overage charges and driving greater customer dissatisfaction,” the company said in a written statement. “Sprint currently offers customers industry-leading data plans on smartphones providing an unlimited data experience while on the Sprint network that eliminates the worry of any data overage charges."

U.S. Cellular will continue to look at ways to meet its customers’ needs, said a spokesman. “U.S. Cellular offers value-packed single line and family plans that provide its customers with choices on minutes, text messaging and data to meet their needs.” The carrier recently started monthly plans with unlimited voice and text messaging and five levels of tiered data, the spokesman said: The packages starts at $10 for 100 MB.