Wireless Case Study -- Wireless

WIRELESS CASE Study -- Wireless Services in the Chicago Area

The modern customer is presented with an increased ability to choose from a wide offering the products and services which bets meet his demands. An example of a highly developed industry that presents the client with this opportunity is the wireless industry, revealing services such as data and telephone communications. Despite the multitude of opportunities, the most adequate choice at this time in terms of quality and costs remain the large corporations which are able to offer great levels of customer satisfaction, such as Verizon Wireless.

The contemporaneous business community is marked by fierce competition and while this is often a negative take for entrepreneurs, it represents a benefit to consumers, who can choose from a wide listing of offering that which best serves their needs. The aim of this paper is to assess the wireless services in the Chicago area and make a final decision based on the most important criteria.

3. Needs and Assumptions

3.1. Needs

As a future user of wireless services, one is likely to reveal some specific needs that must be served through the purchase of the respective services. In this line of thoughts, the first set of needs is given by the actual requirements of the prospective customer. Given that one is looking to contract services for wireless internet usage as well as telephone wireless services, the first need is for the existence of both voice and data services. Then, there is the need of a high quality of the services provided in order to ensure that the customer is able to use the internet and the telephone regardless of temporal and geographic specifications; this means a need for good signal coverage on the part of the service provider. Third, there is a need for easiness in usage as not all customers are IT specialists that can overcome technological difficulties.

3.2. Assumptions

The assumptions to be established before the commencement of the assessment process are identified based on the needs revealed by the prospective customer, as well as the previous experiences of the client. In this order of ideas, one would assume that the same wireless service provider is able to offer both voice and data services. Then, it is also an assumption that when purchasing the two sets of services, the final costs is lower than the individual costs of the two sets of services taken separately. However, this is only the case when purchasing both services from the same provider. Then, a third assumption is that each provider has a differing coverage and the signal, and consequently, the quality of the wireless services will also differ from one provider to the other. Additionally, it is expected that the retail prices differ, but these are not likely to reveal significant variations, as all providers strive to implement the most competitive prices.

4. Decision Criteria

The assessment of the wireless services available in the Chicago are is based on a multitude of criteria, including features such as coverage, code technology, quality of the services, retail prices, customer service, features or adjacent products, such as telephones in the case of voice services or laptops in the case of data services. Other assessment criteria specific to the type of wireless services sought include roaming, long distance or data applications for voice services and data rates, future and internet for data services.

5. Assessment Matrix

The easiest way to come to a decision is to reveal the features of each provider in a tabular form that is easy to assess.

VOICE

VERIZON

T-MOBILE

U.S. CELLULAR

Re-

SELLERS

SPRINT

NEXTEL

AT&T

COVERAGE

Excellent

Excellent

Excellent

Good

Excellent

Good

Good

CODE TECHNOLOGY

CDMA

GSM

CDMA

GSM

CDMA

CDMA

GSM

QUALITY

3.6 of 5

2.6

3.3

2.5

2.6

3 of 5

2.8 of 5

CELL PHONES

Plenty, 172, but obligation to buy from them

130 phones in the offering

Poor offering, 54 phones

47

Limited offer, 49

FEATURES

In-network calls

Free incoming calls

Up to date offering

Diverse offering

Free phones

Diverse and rich offering

COST

$39 to $369

$29 to $149

$29 to $199

$39 to $389

$29 to $189

$29 to $149

$29 to $199

ROAMING

Very good, partner with Sprint and Alltel

Very good

Good, partner with Verizon

Good

Very good, partner with Verizon Alltel and other CDMA

Good, partner with iDEN/TDMA towers

Good, partner with other GSM providers

LONG DISTANCE

Wide coverage and diverse offering

Best international services

Poor

Limited

Specific, but generally poor

Extensive

Extensive, as low as $5.9/minute

DATA APLLICATIONS

Extensive

Good

Extensive

Poor

Extensive

Extensive

Extensive

FUTURE

Sustainable growth

Stagnation

Sustainable Growth

Stability

Adjustment to merger with Nextel

Adjustment to merger with Sprint

Stagnation

CUSTOMER

SERVICE

3.4 of 5, 24/7

2.9 of 5, 24/7

3.1, 24/7

2.8 of 5, differs

2.4, 7 AM to 1 AM

2.3 of 5, 24/7

2.9 of 5, 24/7

DATA

AT&T

VERIZON

T-MOBILE

U.S. CELLULAR

Re-SELLERS

SPRINT

NEXTEL

COVERAGE

Nationwide, weaker than Verizon and Sprint

Nationwide

Nationwide, but poorer than Verizon's

Excellent

Very Good

Excellent

Poor

CODE TECHNOLOGY

WCDMA/UMTS, GSM

Mobile Broadband, CDMA

T-Mobile Broadband, GSM

CDMA

Broadband

PCS-1900 CDMA, CDMA2000

iDEN - TDMA-based technology

QUALITY

Great

Excellent

Very good

Average

Average

Good, but significantly inferior to Verizon

Average, but growing

DATA RATES

$30 to $229

$1.99 per Mb

$39 to $59 per month

$30 per month per 20Mb

$60 per month per 5Gb

$59.99

$14.99 per month for Nextel Online

DEVICES/PHONES

Wide

Wide

Extensive

Poor offering

Limited

Wide offering

Limited

FEATURES

Rollover minutes

Only for businesses

USB 3G wireless access

Wide array of modems and plans

Dependency on providers

Sprint Business

Nextel Online

COST

Increased costs

Diverse, based on traditional or prepaid

Low, T-Mob is among the least costly data carriers

NA

NA

Diverse, strives to be competitive

NA

ROAMING

Good, partner with other GSM providers

Very good, partner with Sprint and Alltel

Very good

Good, partner with Verizon

Good

Very good, partner with Verizon Alltel and other CDMA

Good, partner with iDEN/TDMA towers

DATA APLLICATIONS

AT&T Video Share

VCast Mobile TV

Easyedge data services

NA

Walkie-talkie

Nextle Online

FUTURE

Sustainable growth

Expansion to customer services

Expansion

Development

Development

Sustainable growth

Finalize 2005 merger with Sprint

INTERNET

Excellent

Excellent

Very Good

Average

Average

Very Good

Average

6. Criteria for Final Decision

Despite the existence of a multitude of decision criteria, the prospective customer will only look at a few ones that he understands best and which are of the utmost priority for him. In this case, the most important criteria which will influence the ultimate decision refer to the quality of the services, the coverage of the signal and the retail cost.

7. Evaluation and Choice