Print 10 comment(s) - last by priusone.. on Nov 12 at 4:46 PM

Ma Bell is speeding up the 4G train







LTE Tower



Source: FierceWireless

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RE: Yawn
By peanutgallery on 11/9/2011 10:02:28 PM , Rating: 2
Indeed. I wonder what AT&T's marketing budget is. Because if they spent as much on building a robust network as they do marketing, they probably wouldn't have needed to buy T-Mobile.

I mean, I was watching college football game the other day and on the football coach of Oklahoma State University's radio was an AT&T logo. I guess because the CEO of AT&T went to OSU, he likes to see his logo everywhere.

But it seems that if you flood the market with advertising, tons of billboards, and have inflated prices to cover the ads, I guess you don't have to build a network. All AT&T has to do is sit back, collect checks.

I did the math one night based on SEC filings, and I can't really remember, but it looked like AT&T fudges the numbers. The OpEx numbers were quite complicated, but I think AT&T only spends about $10-$15 in network costs per customer. So when you get that $90-per-month phone bill, it seemed like only 10% went to actual network costs.

Myself, I have Verizon, which works pretty good, but when my contract is up, I'll probably switch to Sprint because they still have unlimited data.

Fast speeds are great, but like a tank of gas, the more you push on the accelerator, the faster you run out of gas... In the wireless situation, it's the faster you get to pay overage charges...

RE: Yawn
By peanutgallery on 11/9/2011 10:20:22 PM , Rating: 2
But do your own research, It's tough to figure out how AT&T calculates its marketing budget and actual amount spent on capital expenditures based on SEC statements. They don't report the actual number in SEC statements; it's based on millions of customers or something. It was difficult to determine.

