Three key important performance measures of the Wireless Telecommunication industry are ARPU,
Subscriber growth and Churn rate as they will provide insights into the firm's operational performance
and future development prospects in a highly saturated market in the US.
ARPU (average revenue per unit)
ARPU shows the firm's capability in resource utilization by maximizing profits and minimizing costs,
especially in a highly saturated and intensely competitive like Wireless Telecommunications market in
the US where the profits have been plateaued (Investopedia, 2022; Simply Wall St, 2023). Higher ARPU
are synonymous with having favored and competent performances (Acro Media, 2022). Hence, by
examining firms ARPU, we will be able to arrive at conclusions on more effective strategies in the US
highly competitive Wireless Telecommunications market.
Subscriber growth
Future growth of Wireless Telecommunications firms depends on its customer base (Investopedia,
2022). By examining Subscriber growth, we can observe whether the firm’s offerings are meeting
customer demands (Matther, Orf, 2022). We believe that subscriber growth would act as an effective
tool to envisage the firm’s possibilities in a highly mature and customer-centric market like the US
Wireless Telecommunications market (DANO, 2022).
Churn rate
The churn rate is a metric that measures the number of subscribers that cancel their subscriptions
(Investopedia, 2022). A low churn rate is ideal. Companies with high subscriber growth rate may even
have relatively high churn rate, therefore it is important to take churn rate into account as it defines and
limits the largest size the firm can achieve (Payal, 2021).
Companies ranking:
We decided to rank the five firms in each of the chosen performance metrics then finalize the ranking by
considering its Average score. As for ARPU and Subscriber growth, the higher the figures are, the higher
the ranking, whereas for the churn rate, the lower it is, the higher the ranking. The final rankings of the
five firms are derived according to the average score, the lower the average, the higher ranking.
Firms
ARPU 2022
Subscriber Growth
(2021-2022)
Churn Rate
(2021-2022)
AT&T
$55.43
(AT&T, 2022)
(3)
7.73%
(WallStreet Zen,
2023)
(1)
0.84%
(AT&T, 2022)
(2)
2
1
T-Mobile
$87.7
(Global Data,
2022)
(2)
4.51%
(Reuters, 2023)
(2)
0.88%
(T-Mobile, n.d.)
(3)
2.3
2
Verizon
$30.89
(Verizon, 2022)
(5)
2.1%
(Verizon, 2022)
(3)
0.83%
(Sharma, 2022)
(1)
3
3
Altice USA
$ 137.70
(Altice USA, 2023)
(1)
-2.35%
(Altice USA, 2023)
(4)
4.72%
(Altice USA, 2023)
(5)
3.3
4
- 2,8%
(Matthew, 2023)
(5)
1.34%
(US Cellular, 2022)
(4)
4.3
5
US Cellular
$50.14
Corporation (US Cellular, 2022)
(4)
Average Ranking
score
References:
Acro Media, object. (2022, February 18). Product bundling in telecommunications. Acro
Media. https://www.acromedia.com/article/product-bundling-in-telecommunications
Altice USA. (2023, February 22). Altice USA Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022
Results. Altice USA, Inc. https://investors.alticeusa.com/news-events/pressreleases/detail/160/altice-usa-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2022-results
AT&T. (2022). AT&T Reports Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results.
https://about.att.com/story/2022/q4-2021-results.html
AT&T. (2022). AT&T reports fourth-quarter and full-year results. Retrieved May 7, 2023,
from https://investors.att.com/~/media/Files/A/ATT-IR-V2/financial-reports/quarterlyearnings/2022/4Q22/ATT_4Q22_Earnings_Release.pdf
DANO, M. (2022, February 18). High wireless subscriber growth unsustainable, according
to analysts. Light Reading. https://www.lightreading.com/5g/high-wireless-subscribergrowth-unsustainable-according-to-analysts/d/d-id/775401
Global Data. (2022). Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of T-Mobile (Q1 2017—Q2 2022,
$). https://www.linkedin.com/company/globaldataplc/
Investopedia. (2022). What are the best metrics to evaluate a telecommunication company?
Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122414/what-are-bestmetrics-evaluate-telecommunication-company.asp
Matther, Orf. (2022, November 22). Where is US Mobile Subscriber Growth Coming From?
Counterpoint Research. https://www.counterpointresearch.com/where-is-us-mobilesubscriber-growth-coming-from/
Matthew, D. (2023, February 22). U.S. Cellular Continues to Struggle With Phone
Subscriber Losses. Morningstar, Inc.
https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1139542/us-cellular-continues-to-struggle-withphone-subscriber-losses
Payal, Ghosh. (2021, July 15). What is ARPU( Average Revenue Per user)+ how to
calculate it. https://customersuccessbox.com/blog/what-is-arpu/
Reuters. (2023). T-Mobile misses estimates for quarterly revenue, wireless subscriber
additions | Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/technology/t-mobile-misses-estimatesquarterly-revenue-wireless-subscriber-additions-2023-04-27/
Sharma, P. (2022, April 6). Verizon’s Churn Rate (2016-2022). Business Quant.
https://businessquant.com/verizon-churn-rate
Simply Wall St. (2023, May 7). U.S. Wireless Telecom Industry Analysis. Simply Wall St.
https://simplywall.st/markets/us/telecom/wireless-telecom
T-Mobile. (n.d.). T‑Mobile Delivers Record Customer Growth, Adding an Expected
Industry‑Best 6.4 Million Postpaid Customers and 2.0 Million Broadband Customers
in 2022 ‑ T‑Mobile Newsroom. T-Mobile Newsroom. Retrieved May 8, 2023, from
https://www.t-mobile.com/news/business/t-mobile-preliminary-customer-results-2022/
US Cellular. (2022). USCELLULAR reports fourth quarter and full year 2022 results.
Retrieved May 7, 2023, from
https://s24.q4cdn.com/321867585/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/USM-Q4-2022Final.pdf
Verizon. (2022, April 22). Verizon reports 1Q earnings for 2022.
https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-reports-1q-earnings-2022
WallStreet Zen. (2023). AT&T Statistics—AT&T Facts, Stats, Trends & Data (2023) |
WallStreetZen. https://www.wallstreetzen.com/stocks/us/nyse/t/statistics