June 3 2003

With business subscribers spending more on cellular services than consumers do, cellular carriers are keen to increase their business subscriber bases, according to In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com).

A recent survey performed by the high-tech market research firm reports that, on average, business users spend $70 per month on cellular service versus the $45 consumers spend. In addition, business users talk about twice as much as consumers do.
 

Corporate contracts represent one of the weapons that cellular carriers are employing to increase this user base. This tool is being used successfully, and they are more popular today than in prior years. While a greater number of panelists surveyed by In-Stat/MDR still purchase their phones through cellular phone stores or kiosks, one-third stated that their companies supply them with their cellular phones. Additionally, more than half of respondents state that their company has selected a carrier or carriers that all employees must use, and nearly half of respondents' companies receive their bills and pay for all calls.
In-Stat/MDR also found that:
 

Today, wireless panelists view AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless as the best business wireless solutions providers.

Cellular carriers are constantly looking for new features and services to offer users to differentiate themselves from one another. Given a list of four different voice-oriented, business services, panelists were most interested in having one voice mailbox to retrieve both work and cellular messages.

There is much discussion regarding bringing "Push-to-Talk" capabilities to market, such as Nextel provides, however, at present, the demand doesn't seem to warrant providing the service.
Although cellular carriers like to offer new features that will make current users stay or might draw new users in, they must always remember that service quality and coverage are of paramount importance to subscribers. Mobile operators must continually focus on improving network coverage, and must tout this feature, if they are capable of doing so.
 

This Market Alert is drawn from the In-Stat/MDR report, "The Battle for Business Cellular Users Rages On" (#IN020353WI), which presents results of a survey administered to In-Stat/MDR's Wireless Internet Panel and discusses cellular carriers' renewed focus on regaining lucrative business cellular users. The report details Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), Minutes of Use (MoU), the trend to corporate contracts, demand for data services and advanced voice features, and the qualities that business users seek when selecting wireless providers to support their business cellular calls. To purchase this report or for more information, please visit: http://www.instat.com/catalog/cat-wi.htm or contact Erin McKeighan at emckeighan@reedbusiness.com or 480.609.4551.

The report is priced at $2,495 USD.
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