Compete Inc. reported its findings on the effects of WLNP. According to the analyst, after a brief spike in churn threat during the first week of WLNP, pre-churn activity has started declining. Compared with 2002, pre-churn levels were 20 percent higher in 2003, indicating the wireless industry would see increased churn in December and the first months of 2004.
In sum, Compete maintains that early industry estimates of a 50-percent increase in churn continue to be overestimated and a more modest 20-percent uptick in churn in the first half of this year is more reasonable.
Cingular saw a surge in pre-churn activity the first week of WLNP. Since then, pre-churn activity has steadily declined at Cingular, indicating positive effects of the carrier’s retention efforts, according to Compete.
Since Cingular’s recovery, T-Mobile now shows the highest churn threat levels in the industry, putting increasing pressure on aggressive acquisition tactics and continued rapid subscriber growth.
