Alltel Corp.’s MyCircle calling plan has given the carrier a boost in postpaid customers, and the company is on track to expand its CDMA2000 1x EV-DO coverage to about 60 percent of its markets by the end of the year.
Kevin Beebe, Alltel’s group president, said during the Bank of America annual investment conference that the MyCircle offer-which allows customers to choose up to 10 landline or wireless numbers for unlimited calling, regardless of carrier-had helped Alltel with “nice postpaid customer growth.” He added that customers are generally using between three and five numbers for MyCircle and that there had been no change in the mix of calls terminating on mobile networks vs. landlines.
Beebe also said that he expects Alltel to be able to reach data revenue percentages comparable to those of larger carriers. Alltel currently sees about 5 to 6 percent of its average revenue per user come from data services.
“I think that we can get to those mid-teens,” he said, and went on to add that nothing is inherent in the mid-sized and rural markets which Alltel covers that would prevent the company from doing so, as long as the applications are compelling.
Beebe also provided some perspective from Alltel on the advanced wireless service spectrum auction, which concluded last week. The carrier is a major roaming partner for all four of the national carriers.
“We didn’t see anything we didn’t expect,” Beebe said. “We really viewed it as a carrier, in the case of T-Mobile [USA Inc.], adding spectrum where they needed it the most. Verizon [Wireless] and Cingular [Wireless L.L.C.] continued to add to their warehouse, if you will, of spectrum.”
In terms of next-generation networks-such as Sprint Nextel Corp.’s recently announced mobile WiMAX plans-affecting Alltel, Beebe said that “their focus seems to be mostly on a fixed broadband alternative,” Beebe said. “I’m unclear on how well a broadband service offering at 2.5 [GHz] does in terms of offering a mobile solution. We’ve kicked the tires on a few broadband solutions like that at higher frequencies. So we’ll watch closely as they do more than just announce it.”
He went on to note that Verizon Wireless has been doing some expansion of its network into areas covered by Alltel, but added that Verizon Wireless has only done so in areas where it also introduced retail stores.
Alltel also announced last week that John Stanton, the founder and chief executive officer of Western Wireless until its acquisition by Alltel last year, will become a member of Alltel’s board of directors.
