Tier One Carriers' Chief Marketing Officers - New Player at Sprint

This is an update of a new CMO at Sprint.  You can find the old posting listing other Tier 1 Carriers' CMOs here.

Sprint is a company in transition and catch up mode. After Softbank's completed its purchase of Sprint in July 2013, the inevitable organization shake up was to be expected.  In September,  Advertising Age reported that Bill Malloy was going to step down as Chief Marketing Officer. 

Sure enough, in early October the new executive landscape was somewhat disclosed. Yet the new Chief Marketing Officer had yet to be announced.  Of course there is some internal etiquette in deference to the incumbent but as of January, Sprint has been in a low visibility CMO transition.  Still, industry watchers could have seen this back in January within the texts of Sprint's Framily plan launch and this month's Framily plan announcement for small businesses. 

Sprint's new Chief Marketing Officer is Jeff Hallock and it's likely that a formal announcement will come about soon once Bill Malloy exits in March.  <Note - this is what should happen in light of the many questions on investor calls on how Sprint marketing will breakout its differentiation.  One would think a new CMO (similar to Mike Sievert at T-Mobile) will articulate his and the company's marketing strategy.>

Mr. Hallock is a Sprint veteran with at least 15 years in product marketing and channels. His latest two year tenure with media and advertising positioning rounds him out for overall CMO credentials.  Education: BS at Wake Forest and MBA at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Jeff Hallock in 2005 touting Sprint Music - Picture from CNET

Given owner Softbank is very aggressive in Japan, it'll be interesting to see what develops from Sprint under Mr. Hallock's tenure. 

Bullet Point Analysis: Verizon Wireless' More Everything Plans

WHAT IS IT?

Verizon Wireless modified their postpaid rate plans. There are 4 key elements of the announcement.  

1) More Everything plans are the new face of postpaid plans. The old plans (likely still in the system) were named Share Everything plans.  Below are the new data thresholds  and associated price points.

2) Unlimited international messaging to complement unlimited domestic messaging will be included in these More Everything plans.

3) Each More Everything plan line receives 25 GB of cloud storage (a.k.a. Verizon Cloud), an upgrade from the norm of 5GB, which also happens to be the standard offerings from AT&T and Sprint. 

4) High-value Verizon Edge customers will get a break on per smartphone "access" pricing, $10/month off monthly smartphone access for data allowances up to 8 GB, and $20 off monthly smartphone access on plans of 10 GB and higher. 

ANALYSIS

There are plenty of media analysis looking at the consumer, and I won't replicate that.  The takeaway for this new action is that it's focused on AT&T.  Verizon Wireless and AT&T have long been each other's primary competitor as both companies position themselves as premium carriers.

Verizon Wireless' More Everything move follows a series of back and forths in industry rate plan adjustments.  Many can argue T-Mobile's UnCarrier 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 started it all off in 2013.  However, AT&T's Mobile Share Value plans launched on December 5, 2013 help start the ball rolling with Verizon Wireless. AT&T's and T-Mobile's (UnCarrier 4.0) Paid switching programs joined by Sprint's January Framily plan announcement also added to the competitive atmosphere.   Though there was a minor Verizon adjustment in January, that was to help to upgrade their featurephone base.  However, things got a bit more complicated at the beginning of February when AT&T announced $15 per smartphone line for non-2 year {Next or customer supplied) Mobile Share Value plans with 10 GB or greater thresholds.     

• Looking at More Everything side by side against Mobile Share Value plans, Verizon Wireless  did a quick turnaround on their 250 MB plan by dropping the price $5 less than a month after introduction.  It also provides some logic to double the price point to get to the next data level (250 MB/$15 --> 500 MB/$30).   

Aside from the new plans under $60, Verizon Wireless didn't touch the rest of the portfolio. Verizon now opens the battleground on lower data thresholds with 5 options below $70 compared to AT&T's 3 choices.  At the same data levels of 1 & 2 GB, Verizon Wireless turned a pricing disadvantage to one that beats AT&T by $5/month.    

• Unlimited international messaging is a feature coup.  Whether consumers do or do not have international contacts, a lot of marketing mileage can be drawn from this feature.  The segment to possibly benefit in this feature are the business/enterprise customers who are more likely to have international contacts.  This also helps somewhat to negate some OTT lock but it'll take time to wean users off free OTT (e.g., WhatsApp, Viber, Tango, Sykpe, etc.) services.

• With 25 GB included storage, Verizon Wireless clearly bests competitors' 5 GB but does it matter?  

• Next and Edge monthly smartphone "access" pricing.  AT&T Next customers were paying $25/smartphone for any data plan below 10 GB, otherwise they would be at $15/smartphone. Verizon's move doesn't match Next pricing. For 8 GB and below, Edge customers pay $30/smartphone whereas 10 GB or higher plan customers pay $20/smartphone.  Regular two year contract (subsidized device) pricing remains at $40/smartphone for both carriers.

COMPETITIVE IMPACT?

• AT&T is now at a disadvantage and needs to respond. Matching price at 1 and 2 GB is the logical route. Whether they match with a new 3GB tier and the $60 price point is up in the air and something they have to analyze their customers' data consumption habits at the 2 and 4 GB tiers.  
• Unlimited and free international messaging is serious and all carriers business/enterprise accounts are now potentially vulnerable and at a disadvantage.  This feature provides Verizon Wireless enterprise reps some differentiating factor to tout.  The playing field may be changed, however, with in-country unlimited messaging if a business plan can be justified.  
• Competitors with baked-in cloud storage may not have to take any rash decisions as consumers have abundant OTT options (e.g., Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, Amazon Cloud, Dropbox, etc.) at their disposal.    The unifying challenge for carriers is to make their own carrier cloud storage relevant.
• Since Edge isn't as high of a priority for Verizon (AT&T in comparison is more aggressive with Next) the new smartphone price points help the existing base but price-wise won't do anything to help switch AT&T Next customers.   

Timing wise, we're midway through 1Q14. The ink is still a bit wet on AT&T's early December Mobile Share Value plans but we've seen these monolithic corporations become quite nimble in providing rapid competitive responses.  The stakes are too high these days.

Want to talk about this and other carrier moves more? Contact me at william.ho (at) 556ventures.com.

Bullet Point Analysis: Verizon Wireless' Share Everything Plan Minor Adjustment

WHAT IS IT?

Several tech news and blogger outlets have reported that Verizon Wireless will add a new 250 MB plan (at $20) level to its Share Everything plans as of January 21, 2014.

ANALYSIS

Big data users invariably dismiss this 250 MB level as miniscule, and it is. But there are two  areas why this makes sense. 

• First - Migrate the featurephone base to Smartphones and Share Everything Plans.  The Share Everything plan is now the only postpaid plan vehicle to migrate customers off legacy voice-centric plans (e.g., America's Choice - remember that?).  The new data-centric plan is also inexplicably linked to smartphone penetration.  Since 1Q2013, an Share Everything plan slide has been every quarterly earnings presentation deck.   

In 2Q 2013

 

In 3Q 2013

Verizon Wireless wants steeper curves on smartphone penetration and postpaid Share Everything account migration.  Here are the illustrative results since 3Q 2012. 

Since 4Q 2013 earnings is around the corner, it's likely to assume that smartphone penetration should cross 70% given the company's track record.  We can also safely assume that once Verizon Wireless nears the 100% Share Everything plan goal, there will be another more important growth slide to take its place. 

 

• Second - Provide a lower price point for featurephone users to convert to data. Previously, the lowest data price point was at $40 and provided 500 MB. Logically and in sales positioning, $20 and 250 MB is half.  While veteran smartphone users cringe at the low data level, Verizon Wireless is betting that once a non-data user starts to use data, they will get hooked and move up subsequent next tiers.  Increasing data usage is closely linked with helping increase Verizon Wireless' average revenue per account (ARPA) metric.

COMPETITIVE IMPACT?

Some may believe that this is Verizon Wireless' action against AT&T revamping its Mobile Share plans back in December 2013.  When laid out, we find that the new plan is in fact less competitive to AT&T. AT&T still has the advantage for Verizon Wireless switchers at the low data levels.    Given the above logic, the new $20/250 MB level will not get featurephone switchers. Those who are making the smartphone jump are likely to have explored T-Mobile or Sprint.

Still Verizon Wireless' opportunity may be in the existing range of data bucket choices with more price points and advantage in addressing the small business and high data use consumer accounts.   

Looking ahead, if history repeats itself, Verizon and AT&T users will start getting a handle of monthly data consumption and adjust accordingly. Once that happens, the number of data levels should shrink and (ideally for customers) price points will decrease.

LTE Speed Titles

AT&T has already taken the LTE speed mantle for 2013.  I think that speed will continue to be an important marketing differentiation.  Sprint Spark, based on 2.5 GHz spectrum as that opportunity to break Sprint out of its downward slide.  

My article in RCR Wireless entitled LTE Speed Crowns and Network Dependencies lays out some of my thoughts.  A key piece in increasing speed is when carrier aggregation kicks in. In a nutshell,   it's the ability to piece together disparate pieces of a carrier's spectrum portfolio to make a 'fatter pipe' in order to deliver to the user, a faster speed (and lower latency) experience. Of course there are a lot of hardware dependencies that go into it.

While speed is exciting, what looks to be a Sprint win may be a marketing and revenue loss in the non-metropolitan areas.  That is due to 2.5 GHz's poor propagation characteristics.  It just cannot reach out there and Sprint's problem is that thought it has a lot of the frequency, in order to make it effective nationally, they would have to expend a LOT more money to blanket the U.S. geography. This is a similar argument that you don't see a fully geographic national PCS network.  Verizon Wireless and AT&T will have that advantage with their sub-1GHz portfolio. When these larger carriers piece their deep cellular bands with their 700 spectrum, they will have the ability to deliver greater speed than Sprint outside of the metropolitan areas.  This won't happen for a couple more years late 2015-2017, perhaps.   

Sprint will need to execute on its 2.5 GHz Spark buildout to have a shot at the standard speed surveys that Root Metrics (various metro updates over the course of the year) and PC Magazine (May) performs. It may be that Sprint will win some important metros but may not get the 2014 title until those survey cities are 'Sparked.'  Throwing a monkey wrench in 2014 will be Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile tapping their deep AWS assets. T-Mobile has already been reported to have a 20 X 20 (20 MHz down/20 MHz uplink) in the Dallas area while Verizon Wireless has turned on  20 X 20 in New York.

When Spark reaches some critical market threshold, I fully expect Sprint to turn up the marketing to push speed and unlimited.(And introduce a deep Tri-band device portfolio). It should definitely appeal to the technology forward users.  I'm also thinking that the tech blogs should help the cause. Of course, it depends on getting that network going. 

2014 will be an interesting speed year.  

Talking about the AT&T Mobile Share Value Plans & Carrier Holiday Outlook

Dan Meyer of RCR Wireless and I discussed the implications of the new AT&T Mobile Share Value plan and what the carriers and handset vendors are doing to get the edge in holiday sales.



Dan's article here.

Bullet Point Analysis: New AT&T Mobile Share Value Pricing - Not Only About T-Mobile

WHAT IS IT?

There were two elements in the announcement:

1. AT&T announced a no-contract option (known as Mobile Share Value) for both consumers and business customers that provides customers with plan and device discounts.     New plans go in effect on Sunday, December 8. The announcement does not provide any service plan details though the carrier has stated that every smartphone added will be a flat $25/month instead of the sliding scale depending on data tier (ranging from $30-$50) on a contract offer. Also, featurephones/quick messaging devices (QMD) are now $20/month instead of $30/month.  All other add-on pricing for tablets, internet devices, wireless home phones, and gaming devices remain the same.
2. AT&T is adding a new Next plan 18 month upgrade option coupled with the ability to spread  payments over 26 months. 

ANALYSIS

TAKEAWAY:  IT'S NOT ONLY ABOUT T-MOBILE BUT ALSO HITS VERIZON WIRELESS

The easiest conclusion when viewing this announcement is that AT&T is responding to T-Mobile's success of the Simple Choice no-contract plans. As T-Mobile has been very public about targeting AT&T customers, it makes sense. Yet when pricing is extracted, the results reveal interesting moves.

Back to the analysis - though the announcement lacks service pricing details, BGR.com seems to have an advance look and crafted a value chart (below) running one and two smartphone scenarios.  

Graphic/table via BGR.com article.  

Not surprisingly, the gist of BGR's findings is that there are indeed savings.  The most surprising discovery of the BGR chart (assuming the prices are correct) is that Contract customers also receive some savings relief, noted in the third column as New Price (Subsidized). This is made possible by leaks in other media that the contract smartphone device add-on is now a flat $40/month.  With this as a guide, the new Value service pricing can be broken out. While there seems to be an increase at the 1 and 2 GB levels, there is some logic (explained in the Verizon Wireless impact below).

Existing AT&T business/enterprise & heavy users electing for >10GB will see the most service price savings if they make the switch.   

WHAT'S IN IT FOR AT&T?

• Though AT&T scoffs at following T-Mobile's no-contract reduced service pricing lead, the disruptive competitor has shown that the marketplace likes it. The fact that T-Mobile's last two quarters had formidable postpaid net additions helped push the AT&T decision to offer a Value plan. AT&T had to counter with something while preserving its premium brand.
• The new Mobile Share Value plans give AT&T more pricing levers. The holidays are coming up and industry insiders know that the bulk of the service providers' transactions are in Q4 and Q1. AT&T cannot allow T-Mobile (and nemesis Verizon Wireless) go into the holiday selling season with any sort of momentum.
• The new Value pricing helps the fight at the important high tier plans. This is particularly important given the target segments are heavy consumer data users and enterprise accounts, which Sprint and Verizon Wireless also covet. Moreover, these are high-value (ARPU bearing) customers that AT&T cannot afford to voluntarily churn out. 
• Smartphones are where the customer and revenue growth is in the near term. By discarding the smartphone device sliding scale pricing simplifies a sales reps' ability to close a transaction. By offering a flat $40/month contract and $25/month no-contract add-on pricing, things are 'not complicated.'  
• AT&T allows its contract customers to move to the new Value plans right away with fees or penalty. Contract customers will just have to remain with the carrier for the number of billing cycles they have remaining. However, they also benefit from the reduced pricing right away. While risky, this ability offsets churn, especially for those customers who don't want/need to upgrade to the latest devices at contract end.

WHICH COMPANIES WILL FEEL THE MOST IMPACT?

• T-Mobile may not get as many AT&T switchers as in previous quarters given AT&T's new No-Contract plan option. Though dismissed as expensive, AT&T's new 26 month payment extension helps to drop the per monthly device financing cost.  In business accounts, T-Mobile can no longer tout that it is the only carrier with no-contract reduced service pricing.
• Verizon Wireless - In the 2 year contract world, Verizon Wireless now sees greater competition. At the low end AT&T still appears to be ahead at the 1 and 2 GB levels despite the price increase.  How AT&T wins at these tiers is the new $40/mo smartphone pricing that matches Verizon Wireless'. In the old contract plan, smartphone add-ons were $45/month. In a single smartphone scenario, the 1 and 2 GB options would be $85 and $95. In the new contract plan, the same result occurs and still bests Verizon Wireless' $90 and $100.  Why do it then? In order to get to a flat $40 smartphone add-on price, pricing planners needed to increase service pricing specifically at these tiers. AT&T's new 8 GB tier now allows provides price parity at the 4 GB to 10 GB range.

With the above chart it is abundantly clear that AT&T was fixing non-competitive pricing against Verizon Wireless at the 6 GB to 50 GB range. Now it is at price parity in the bread and butter 2 year contract battle. Additionally, with a No-Contract option, Verizon Wireless is vulnerable for those high-value customers who want to shift over to a lesser no-contract option but won't consider T-Mobile. 

• Sprint is likely to be impacted in business accounts where it is competing heavily against AT&T and Verizon Wireless. It can't be too soon to have its Spark program rolled out to present a service differentiation.

COMPETITIVE RESPONSE?

• T-Mobile doesn't have any more pricing levers as its Simple Choice plans are fairly aggressive. Its ARPU metrics have been on the decline already and it has said that ARPU will stabilize along with churn. Along with this stability is the margin that also comes without playing the device subsidy game. Marketing and PR positioning will likely be the most logical step, marrying the value playbook with undercurrents of bolstered speed and its growing national LTE network footprint. Of course there will be the campaigns that says AT&T is copying T-Mobile.
• T-Mobile and Sprint's family plans are not shared data plans which has its own competitive merits. T-Mobile and Sprint positions the ability to assign a lesser or more data amount per user.  Moreover, Sprint's unlimited proposition and lower price points still stand out compared to larger competitors Verizon Wireless and AT&T. 
• Given AT&T's move into the No-Contract game, Verizon Wireless is forced to go on the same path.  AT&T's no-contract $25/month smartphone add-on is fairly aggressive; Verizon Wireless would unlikely undercut this as it doesn't want to stimulate a price war. A logical and conservative scenario is to roll out a matching no-contract plan.  In all likelihood, Verizon Wireless may add its own twist.

Sub-1GHz Spectrum in the U.S.

Today, RCR Wireless posted an Analyst Angle article that I authored on the desirability of sub-1GHz spectrum. Within the article there are some well illustrated graphics on where the top three Tier-1 providers stand in terms of coverage and spectrum depth. Here is an example for Verizon Wireless.

(Thanks to Mosaik Solutions for their graphics & database work)

The control of this sub-1GHz has been long argued as a legacy competitive advantage that AT&T and Verizon Wireless has over competitors Sprint and T-Mobile.  The latter carriers have decent hi-band spectrum but in order to have broad national geographic coverage, the poor propagation characteristics of 2.5 GHz (EBS and BRS) and AWS (1.7/2.1GHz) make it capital intensive and costly to mirror the sub-1GHz footprint of larger rivals.

3Q13 U.S. Tier 1 Carrier Results - A Conversation

I had a chance to talk to RCR Wireless' Dan Meyer on Tier 1 third quarter carrier results.

Read it at RCR Wireless here:: AT&T & Verizon Wireless

View it:



Read it at RCR Wireless here: Sprint and T-Mobile 

View it:

Bullet Point Analysis: T-Mobile's Un-carrier 3.0 - The International Card

WHAT IS IT?

T-Mobile announced its Un-carrier 3.0 initiative. The 3.0 portion follows the Un-carrier strategy that the company unveiled in March 2013 to address "customers' pain points" and ultimately set the company on track to retain and grow marketshare.

As a recap, this slide from the 2013 Q2 earnings release summarizes the company's Un-carrier moves thus far.

 

 

Un-carrier 3.0 in a nutshell:

 

• Starting on Halloween, Simple Choice (new Uncarrier 1.0 plan) will include unlimited data and texting when roaming in 100 "Simple Global" countries.   
• Voice calls are not unlimited, rather it's $0.20/minute when roaming in the 100 Simple Global countries/
• Highlights the $10 International Talk & Text add-on which allows unlimited calls to landlines in 70 countries and unlimited texts to 200 countries. Otherwise, calls are at $0.20 (or less)/minute to other countries' landlines and mobile numbers.

 

WHAT'S IN IT FOR T-MOBILE?

• Strategic Promise, Disruption and Differentiation: T-Mobile is delivering on a strategy that addresses customers' pain points. Previous iterations were doing away with contracts, early handset upgrades and lower service pricing by decoupling the overt handset subsidy. From a marketing viewpoint, this provides more advertising fodder to drive customer acquisition attack ads.
• Growing the Business Subscriber Base: Let's face it, T-Mobile has always been a consumer centric brand. Prior to its network buildout thrust, its network could not compete against larger competitors AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint, who had the business sector sewn up, especially globe trotting enterprises. In the 2Q 2013 earnings call, CEO John Legere subtlely telegraphed B2B as an area of 'coming attractions.'  Legere even admitted that the "percentage of gross additions were too small to get concerned with..." With this as a backdrop, the international roaming angle of Un-carrier 3.0 is a boon to target globe trotting business customers to grow its B2B business.
• Driving International Calling: While stateside international calling can be costly for T-Mobile, one should be reminded that its prepaid brand, MetroPCS announced unlimited stateside "international" calling for $5 back in 2009. So a cost-effective (some believe VoIP-based) infrastructure is already in place.
• Impacting Profitability?: One would think before any of these moves gets off the ground, there are business cases supporting the effort. While unlimited data roaming may sound like a money loser, it's all relative for several reasons. First, the roaming impact may be thought as the cost to acquire a coveted business subscriber base that is less price sensitive than the consumer segment. The business base and the additional lines (and the overall customer spend) may offset the cost of data roaming.  Second, there are parallels to the introduction of unlimited calling where a steady state and predictable monthly consumption develops. It's unlikely to think business travelers are constantly streaming video abroad - more consumer behavior. For consumers, a slower abroad data experience may provide frustration and curtail that behavior. Finally, the $10/month stateside international calling tacks helps offset some of the overall costs. Besides, as the slide above states, T-Mobile is targeting to have the lowest cost structure in the industry.

WHICH COMPANIES WILL FEEL THE MOST IMPACT?

• Clearly T-Mobile is going after its bigger competition, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint to grab business switchers.  This segment tend to have higher ARPU/ARPA than consumers. The proposition is formidable as anyone who has traveled and paid for roaming can attest. Magnify this to multinational enterprises in which roaming is a substantial expense and expense managers will quickly look at T-Mobile's Uncarrier 3.0 option.  T-Mobile business sales teams now have this and a growing domestic LTE national network to provide credibility in sales calls.  
• It's likely that competitors will see some business subscriber leakage with a compelling offer as unlimited international data and text roaming.  Competitors are already playing up slower roaming data experiences but unless they can prove that a T-Mobile roaming customer receives a slower experience than their own roaming partners, they're in the same boat (held hostage as the destination's partner network). Yet the percentage of global travel will determine an organization's business case for switching. Further, it will depend on the generation of handset for higher speed support abroad.  LTE roaming is almost non-existent so the default will be HSPA+ (in some countries dual carrier HSPA+ is possible) or EDGE roaming.
• A possible scenario may be that T-Mobile 'lines' will be purchased for international business. This approach will provide a known US number for easy contact rather than to purchase an in-country SIM card. So the customer may have both a domestic and international phone/line.  Either way, T-Mobile stands to gain subscriber lines and if they can prove domestic network parity in the long term, total switching will become a viable scenario.
• On the stateside international calling front, VoIP providers such as Skype may feel some impact as the simple ability to direct dial can trump launch an OTT app on a computer or handset.    

COMPETITIVE RESPONSE?

It remains to be seen if competitors will match T-Mobile's unlimited data and text roaming offer. To some extent, they are handcuffed as their enterprise bases are large and international roaming revenue, decently profitable. Loyalty and network breadth (domestic and international) will be a piece of the counter argument. However, Un-carrier 3.0 is a formidable challenge that will need to be addressed. Key indicators will be customer inquiry for a competitive response, roaming revenue declines and customer voluntary churn.  What form it will take and how quickly a solution rolls out depends on customer defection.  Regardless, product planners will be in meetings to figure out their company's response alternatives. 

Tier One Carriers' Chief Marketing Officers

The U.S. wireless landscape continues to evolve with elevated competition. The stakes are higher now as postpaid subscriber growth of years past now declines. Postpaid switching (stealing subscribers) is the new battleground while, in parrallel, acquiring high-value prepaid customers has stepped up in urgency.  Add to this, increasing the wholesale customer base, which includes MVNOs and machine-to-machine (including the nascent automobile infotainment), is an added necessity.

While the Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers get the limelight of quarterly earnings calls and investor conferences, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) has the responsibility to further/preserve the corporation's brand equity, and create strategies to help grow the customer base.  With the ultra-competitive nature of the American wireless sector, let's see who is steering the Tier One carriers' marketing and directing campaigns against rivals. The following biographies are taken off the respective corporate websites:

AT&T Mobility - David Christopher 

David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility, leads product strategy, marketing and execution across AT&T’s extensive portfolio of branded wireless communications services and devices.

His responsibilities include overall product direction and planning for branded wireless services, including voice, data and cloud products, devices and accessories and network marketing; national, channel and field marketing – including the marketing strategy and merchandizing for AT&T’s more than 2,400 company owned retail stores; youth and diversity marketing; market research; customer lifecycle management; promotions and pricing; and national advertising and strategic sponsorships.

Christopher also oversees the award-winning AT&T Developer Program and its more than 25,000 members, leading the team that determines and delivers the tools and training developers need to build new and innovative applications.

Previously, Christopher served as chief marketing officer for AT&T’s Mobility and Consumer Markets, which included leading all marketing and product functions that drove the company’s three-screen strategy across wireless, TV and broadband products. He also served as vice president of product management for AT&T’s wireless unit, Cingular Wireless.

Before joining AT&T, Christopher worked at Palm, serving most recently as vice president – Product Marketing and Management with responsibility for the team that defined, developed and managed all Palm-branded product lines worldwide from concept through end of life.

Prior to Palm, Christopher worked for Sara Lee Corporation in Barcelona, Spain and Gent, Belgium.A native of Winston-Salem, NC, Christopher earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Masters of Business Administration from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

Christopher serves on the Ad Council’s board of directors and its executive committee and on the Facebook Client Council.

Sprint - Bill Malloy

Bill Malloy joined Sprint in September 2011 as chief marketing officer.

Malloy brings to Sprint more than 30 years of experience in senior operating roles with marketing, media and wireless companies ranging from start-up ventures to large corporate entities.

He has been involved in the wireless industry almost since its inception in the mid-1980s, holding key marketing and operational leadership positions with McCaw Cellular and AT&T Wireless.

Most recently he was a venture partner with Ignition Partners, a venture capital firm based in Seattle. He joined Ignition in 2002 and during the next seven years was a member of the firm’s wireless communications team. In addition to working on early-stage investments, he represented the firm from 2004 to 2009 as chairman and CEO of Sparkplug Communications, a company created from within Ignition that later merged with Airband Communications. Before Ignition, he served as CEO of two Internet companies, Peapod and Worldstream Communications.
 

During his tenure at McCaw Cellular and AT&T Wireless he served as executive vice president of U.S. operations for AT&T Wireless, leading the team that created and launched AT&T’s Digital One Rate, the first national wireless calling plan. Before that, he was president of the company’s central region and led the build-out and launch of AT&T PCS markets. He also served as regional vice president of McCaw Cellular’s operations in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri and led national marketing for the company during the launch of Cellular One, the first national wireless brand for independent carriers, and the North American Cellular Network (NACN), the first national wireless call delivery network.

Malloy began working with McCaw in 1985 when he was a partner with the company's advertising agency. Before joining McCaw Cellular, he had an 11-year career in senior operating and partner positions in advertising firms and media companies.

Malloy is a graduate of Washburn University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management where he graduated from the Kellogg Management Institute.

T-Mobile -  Michael Sievert

G. Michael (Mike) Sievert, age 44, serves as our Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Sievert is responsible for strategic development and execution of all marketing, product development, and pricing programs and activities for the Company. Mr. Sievert has also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of T-Mobile USA since November 2012. Prior to joining T-Mobile USA, Mr. Sievert was an entrepreneur and investor involved with several Seattle-area start-up companies, most recently serving as CEO of Discovery Bay Games, a maker of accessories and add-ons for tablet computers, from April 2012 to November 2012. From April 2009 to June 2011, he was Chief Commercial Officer at Clearwire Corporation, a broadband communications provider, responsible for all customer-facing operations. From February 2008 to January 2009, Mr. Sievert was co-founder and CEO of Switchbox Labs, Inc., a consumer technologies developer, leading up to its sale to Lenovo. He also served from January 2005 to February 2008 as Corporate Vice President of the worldwide Windows group at Microsoft Corporation, responsible for global product management and P&L performance for that unit. Prior to Microsoft, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at AT&T Wireless for three years. He also served as Chief Sales and Marketing officer at E*TRADE Financial and began his career with management positions at Procter & Gamble and IBM. He has served on the boards of Rogers Wireless in Canada, Switch & Data Corporation, and a number of technology start-ups. Mr. Sievert received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Verizon Wireless - Ken Dixon

Ken Dixon is vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless company in the United States, with responsibility for all brand management and marketing initiatives for the company, including the management and development of mobile products and services, media buying, agency management and website integration. A premier technology company, Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s largest and most reliable 4G LTE network.

Previously, Dixon served as president, Midwest Area for Verizon Wireless, where he was responsible for the company’s operations in the Great Plains, Illinois/Wisconsin, Kansas/Missouri, Michigan/Indiana/Kentucky and Ohio/Pennsylvania/West Virginia regions.

Dixon has also served as region president for the company’s Georgia/Alabama, Upstate New York and New England Regions where he was responsible for overseeing general operations and sales leadership. He also served as vice president of Operations and Distribution in the Mid-Atlantic Area and managed business and indirect sales in the Upstate New York and New England Regions.

Dixon joined the wireless industry in 1992 and has since held several management positions in both sales and operations.  He earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY.

Observations

Tenures:

• AT&T's Christopher has been at the helm since April 2007 when previous CMO Marc LeFar (now Vonage CEO) resigned. He has product, service and marketing stints in his past. From that perspective, he understands the mobility business as well as the fixed line consumer side. 
• Sprint's Malloy became Sprint's formal CMO in April 2011. The position had been vacant ever since Dan Hesse took the helm in 2007. In the years running up to 2011, Hesse had not appointed anyone into the title. But Bill Morgan (now SVP - Marketing at Motorola Mobility) had the overall marketing responsibility until 2011. As an old AT&T Wireless, McCaw Cellular hand, he understands the services and products space. Moreover, his internet/start-up/VC and advertising background gives him well-rounded overall marketing credentials.
• Mike Sievert, seemingly, is the newest CMO in this peer group also with product, services and software background.  The T-Mobile CMO job has relatively high turnover compared to other Tier Ones. He came on to the scene replacing acting-CMO Andrew Sherrard (still an SVP in Marketing and replaced Cole Brodman May 2012) in mid-November 2012, a month after CEO John Legere took the helm. 
• Verizon Wireless' Ken Dixon replaced Marni Walden (now Chief Operating Officer who took the post in 2010). There aren't any news releases on when Dixon took the position. As late as February 2012, he was the President of the Midwest region so presumably, it was in 2012 or 2013. Ken Dixon's stints in multiple regional president roles give him both regional and national operational (sales and service) and marketing sensitivities, since regions have the autonomy to do complementary local marketing.  

Each companies' marketing organizations have their own strengths and challenges but that will be for another post.

Bullet Point Analysis: MetroPCS's 15 New Market Expansion & New Handsets

MetroPCS had multiple announcements. The first announcement focuses on expanded its smartphone portfolio with the Nokia Lumia 521 ($99) and LG Optimus F3 ($149). While handset announcements are less than notable on a strategy, there are small tidbits that one can glean. They are:

• The  smartphones are not CDMA. This is a step to migrate the subscriber base to the T-Mobile network (100% goal in 2015) .
• The Lumia is an HSPA+ only device and comes from the T-Mobile prepaid device stable. Moreover, it give MetroPCS a Windows Phone choice.
• The LG Optimus F3 is HSPA+/LTE. Other carriers have the F3 in CDMA configuration. The F3 has better processor specs than the postpaid Optimus L9 offering. So the prepaid version bests a postpaid offering, albeit a tad smaller (4" vs 4.5" screen).   

The second press release was more interesting.  MetroPCS announced 15 new markets, expanding their total market reach to 30 markets.  With this announcement, the company has opened up for business in those markets along with distribution.  However, Metro will wait until September 1 for their advertising push. 

Of the 15 markets, 8 are Leap markets. T-Mobile's CEO has talked up a head-to-head match up against Leap. Interestingly some are in Texas, a Leap stronghold. One symbolic market that stands out is San Diego - Leap's corporate headquarters.  Key to the success will obviously be distribution - big box stores such as Best Buy and third party retailers. The company is looking for 200 doors in August with more in the fall.

• Baltimore, MD - Head-to head against Leap/Cricket
• Birmingham, Ala. - New market without retail Leap presence; Next major city that links up with Atlanta market
• Cleveland and Akron, Ohio - adds to Great Lakes coverage
• Corpus Christi, Texas - Head-to head against Leap/Cricket
• Fresno, Calif. - Head-to head against Leap/Cricket
• Houston, Texas - Head-to head against Leap/Cricket
• Memphis, Tenn. - Head-to head against Leap/Cricket
• New Orleans, LA  - New market without retail Leap presence
• Rio Grande Valley, Texas  - Head-to head against Leap/Cricket
• San Antonio and Austin, Texas - Head-to head against Leap/Cricket
• San Diego, Calif. - In Leap's backyard (its headquarters)
• Seattle and Tacoma, Wash. - In T-Mobile's HQ area, no brainer in opening up distribution in the parent's backyard; New market without retail Leap presence
• Tallahassee, Fla. - Rounds out MetroPCS's Florida coverage. New market without retail Leap presence
• Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio - adds to Great Lakes coverage; New market without retail Leap presence
• Washington, DC - Head-to head against Leap/Cricket

AWS Spectrum Maps - Before and After: AT&T-Leap Buyout

In yesterday's post, we saw the results of a combined entity spectrum depth map that displayed the 700MHz, Cellular, PCS and AWS bands.  However, one of the points I brought up was AT&T staying in the AWS spectrum game for LTE capacity fill in (to 700) and to position itself from an AWS LTE roaming standpoint. In this post, we are fortunate to show the AWS holdings for Leap and AT&T. 

Leap AWS spectrum

AT&T AWS spectrum

Combined AT&T-Leap AWS spectrum

What have we concluded? Specifically, the AWS national footprint still far from filled as evidenced by the white on the map. Once AWS LTE roaming happens, AT&T has the option to fill those areas, if necessary.

Despite the AWS gaps, we can see that Leap will strength AT&T LTE in specific markets such as:

• (West) Seattle, central California, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Denver
• (Southwest) Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tuscon, Sante Fe, El Paso
• (Midwest) Kansas City, Omaha, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville
• (South-ish) San Antonio, Ok City, New Orleans, Little Rock, Memphis, Hashville   
• (Mid-Atlantic) Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Richmond, Charlotte, Raleigh, Columbia
• (East-ish) Buffalo, Pittsburgh

Again, the combined AT&T-Leap spectrum depth map (note this excludes WCS spectrum)

Thanks to Mosaik for their output.