NEW YORK-Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s minority interest parent company BellSouth Corp. told industry analysts at a New York briefing that while it expects to see continued strong growth from its wireless operations in both the United States and Latin America, the industry will to continue to suffer from competitive pressures that have affected both margins and customer churn.
“We’re going to be under pressure for several quarters going forward,” said Stan Sigman, chief executive officer at Cingular. “We all agree that these margins and churn rates are unacceptable. It won’t be fixed overnight, but it will be fixed.”
Following two successive quarters of higher-than-expected customer growth that witnessed Cingular add nearly 1.3 million customers, analysts have noted sales channel checks showed the carrier’s fourth-quarter customer additions are slower than expected.
