US Cellular: We turned down iPhone

whitewolf8214

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US Cellular: We turned down iPhone
By PETER SVENSSON - AP Technology Writer | AP – 2 hrs 26 mins ago NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Cellular Corp., the country's sixth-largest cellphone company, on Friday said it had the opportunity to carry the iPhone but turned it down because the phone is too expensive.

It's the first U.S. carrier to acknowledge turning down the phone.

Consumers pay $200 for the base model of the iPhone 4S, but Apple charges carriers about $600 for it. Carriers count on making their money back in service fees over the life of the contract.

U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon told analysts on an earnings conference call Friday that "the terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint." She didn't provide any details, but said the added load the iPhone could have placed on its data network was not a big consideration.

Chicago-based U.S. Cellular has 5.9 million subscribers, a number that has been shrinking slowly over the past two and a half years. Only a quarter of its subscribers on contract-based plans have smartphones, compared with half at AT&T Inc.

Carriers see the ability to sell the iPhone as a crucial competitive advantage, though its high price means it's not an easy path to profits. Sprint started selling the phone last month and has said it will take two years for it to pay off.

AT&T was the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple Inc.'s phone for three and a half years, until Verizon Wireless got it in February. Now, tiny Mississippi-based carrier C Spire Wireless is set to add it too.

T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest carrier, has a data network that isn't compatible with the iPhone.
 
Never heard of US Cellular. Maybe I would have if they had the iPhone. :)

They are one of the larger "super" regionals, along with Metro PCS and CSpire (formerly Cellular South).
I think they are the sixth largest carrier in the nation if memory serves.
 
They are one of the larger "super" regionals, along with Metro PCS and CSpire (formerly Cellular South).
I think they are the sixth largest carrier in the nation if memory serves.

That explains it, if Todd knows about it it must be some kind of redneck operation...probably only have Roll Tide Cell phone accessories and free 24 packs with every new activation :D
 
That explains it, if Todd knows about it it must be some kind of redneck operation...probably only have Roll Tide Cell phone accessories and free 24 packs with every new activation :D

Haha, they are not available here, but that sounds like a hell of a promotion!
 
They are based out of Chicago and service most of the midwest area. They are pretty big in Oklahoma too. My first cell phone a big (though small for its time) Panasonic with a whip antenna, was thru US Cellular back around 1991 when I was in college. I think I got a whole 120 minutes a month for like $20. My sister still has US Cellular and the same number she got in college around the mid 1990's.
 
I've been with USCC since the 90s (1st phone was a Motorola with a two-line, red LED display), currently with four lines. Their coverage in rural areas of Iowa is better than anyone's. They have roaming agreements with Verizon, so their nationwide plans work pretty much everywhere. Supposed to be rolling out LTE after the first of the year.

Their phone selection has always been a bit limited compared to the big boys, but has improved a little in the last year or two. I'm pretty happy with my Motorola Electrify, but, as a longtime Mac user, I'd be very interested in an iPhone.
 
USM: Summary for United States Cellular Corporat- Yahoo! Finance

Ticker symbol USM traded on NYSE.

They are CDMA and may not have enough bandwidth to handle the 4S impact but is gearing up for LTE. Market Cap of 3.65B so they are not any hick town phone company. Don't pay a dividend and have small moves so they are what I consider a day trader candidate. As an investor, Verizon and AT&T are much superior companies. Verizon is also rated #1 by customers. ( Disclosure- I own both VZ and T stocks )
 
The wife just got me an iphone for my b'day and I can you I am sold and can't believe I could have existed without it. It sorta reminds me of how Dish was before they got bullheaded and started losing channels and entire sections of the country. Dish was the best supplier about 5 years ago. It a shame they have sunk so low. I hope Apple doesn't lose its way without jobs.
 
It sorta reminds me of how Dish was before they got bullheaded and started losing channels and entire sections of the country. Dish was the best supplier about 5 years ago. It a shame they have sunk so low.
You can't assume that a company stops when you leave. 5 years ago Dish was having many problems on all fronts, it was in a race for the number of HD channels, there was a great difference in PQ between different HD channels. It was in a transition of setting up Eastern Arc and moving customers to new satellites. It had legal issues preventing E* from adding new capability to it's DVR technology. It had no solution to not having a presence with NFL on Sunday afternoons.

So, to bring you up to the end of 2011 and especially for the past 2 years, all those issues are gone! The service is completely stable, It doesn't have NFL ST but does have a way to watching all the games absent the commercials and wait time, just the action and plays of each game, an excellent compromise to not having the premium priced D* NFLST which is an exclusive. It has now the most stable and robust and flexible DVR's in the industry with unlimited storage using swapable ext hard drives, IPTV movie service from Blockbuster online and mail order BluRay and DVD rental disks and local stores where you can rent or buy movies and games for low prices or rent unlimited number for one low price per month. No other satellite service has all that!

Your ignorance of what Dish is doing today is obvious; you just don't know what is going on. Is Dish perfect? Of course not but 2011 has been a year of proof for Dish, especially with their addition of the Blockbuster content and the TIVO settlement. Both of these are huge benefits to the customer base.

As for Apple-- Steve Jobs has laid the groundwork for the next couple of years of new product development and as history has demonstrated Tim Cook will be the man to keep these roll-outs executed with past precision that Jobs was often credited for. The real question is that after 2014 when the Steve Jobs era of innovative ideas is exhausted, will Apple have a new visionary, or will it suffer the loss and fall into the same rut that Microsoft has?
 
Of course Jonathan Ives has been the lead designer at Apple for years, and he is still there, so not so sure the future is bleak for them either. :)

Good points about Dish. I remember the HD wars... seems like another lifetime!
 
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