Qwest loses 45,000 wireless customers, blames migration to Verizon Wireless
Transition becomes ‘churn situation’
October 29 2008 - 5:51 pm ET | Allie Winter | RCR Wireless News
Brand-switching appears to have tripped up Qwest Communications International Inc. — the carrier lost 45,000 of its 800,000 wireless customers in the third quarter and blamed the deficit on its recent migration to Verizon Wireless.
Qwest in July dropped its mobile virtual network operator relationship with Sprint Nextel Corp. in order to become an agent for Verizon Wireless. Qwest said the move — which included dropping Qwest-branded wireless service in favor of Verizon Wireless-branded offerings — would expand its service footprint and boost its finances.
Thus, the loss of customers may have come as a surprise to Qwest. Indeed, John Gonner, director of Qwest’s wireless product management, said in July that the transition “won’t be a churn situation.”
“[We’ll] keep customers with compelling calling plans and phones,” Gonner said in July.
A Qwest representative was not immediately available to comment on the customer losses.
Qwest is currently offering Verizon Wireless plans to customers, as well as the opportunity to combine Verizon Wireless packages with Qwest bundles through one bill. But Qwest’s former “one-number” service — which forwarded unanswered calls from a home phone to a cellphone — did not make it through the transition to Verizon Wireless, which may have contributed to the customer loss.
As for Verizon Wireless, the carrier added 2.1 million total customers during the third quarter, of which 700,000 arrived through third-party vendors. Verizon Wireless does not break out the sources of its third-party growth. Representatives from the nation’s No. 2 carrier declined to comment.
Interestingly, Qwest’s wireless department isn’t alone in its suffering. The company as a whole took a huge financial hit in the third quarter, posting a net income of $151 million — shockingly lower than its $2.1 billion in income during last year’s third quarter.
In an effort to cut costs, Qwest said it will fire around 1,200 employees before year’s end.
October 31, 2008 04:04 pm
sakibaba, you were a day early in your pithy reply - looks like Sprint is still going to focus on iDen so the cabbies can chat all night. meanwhile Qwest business customers will appreciate Vz's better coverage and blackberry phones. the qwest-sprint deal was not favorable to qwest so they probably made the best move they could given their lack of wireless assets. sprint's loss - watch their next 2-3 quarters of net subscriber reporting.
October 30, 2008 04:08 pm
Serves you right for jumping ship.....Sprint has a much stronger data network and you will see once it gets the act together by dumping "you know what" technology it will be doing much better.....
October 29, 2008 05:54 pm
More shocking is your inability to mention that last year 3Q had a one-time tax benefit of over 2 billion dollars.