Cincinnati Bell

U.S. Cellular, other small U.S. operators continue to lag behind

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:24:52 -0500

When Verizon Wireless' $28.1 billion acquisition of Alltel closes, there will be no U.S. wireless networks with between 7 million and 30 million customers, and the gap between small operators and large behemoths will grow wider, according to a report by the Mobile World Briefing.

There are currently seven networks with fewer than 7 million subscribers but greater than 250,000, although if AT&T's plan to buy Centennial gains regulatory approval, there will only be six. They include Qwest, Ntelos, U.S. Cellular, Leap, MetroPCS and Cincinnati Bell. During the third quarter, four out of the seven experienced net declines in subscriber growth, with Qwest experiencing the largest drop. Qwest lost 45,000 subscribers in the quarter, taking its base down to 770,000, its lowest base since the third quarter of 2005.

Leap and MetroPCS remain the fastest-growing small operators, with annual growth rates of 27.6 percent and 32.3 percent respectively. However, the annual growth rate for the seven combined was 13.1 percent, compared to 15.9 percent for T-Mobile USA, 14.0 percent for AT&T Mobility, 11.2 percent for Verizon and -6.3 percent for Sprint Nextel.

When the Verizon-Alltel deal closes it will create company with more than 83 million subscribers. AT&T is the second largest, with nearly 75 million subscribers.

For more:
- see this article

Related Articles:
FCC approves Verizon's acquisition of Alltel
AT&T buys Centennial for $944M

Martin Cooper - Top U.S. Wireless Innovators of All Time

Sue Marek — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:16:43 -0500

Often referred to as the "father of cell phone," Marty Cooper first came up with the concept of a portable cellular phone in 1973 and led his team at Motorola in the 10-year quest to bring the first cellular phone to market.

Cooper spent 29 years with Motorola and served as corporate director of research and development. He then founded Cellular Business Systems, a cellular billing firm that he later sold to Cincinnati Bell. Cooper remains actively involved in the wireless industry. Since 1992, he has served as the executive chairman and co-founder of Arraycomm, a San Jose, Calif.-based startup that makes smart antenna technology.

More pictures of Marty at CTIA...

Christina Domecq - Top Women in Wireless

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:00:22 -0400

Christina Domecq

CEO of SpinVox

London-based SpinVox burst onto the radar screen in 2007 when it announced some key deals with North American operators including Alltel and Cincinnati Bell. The privately held firm, which has developed a compelling voice-to-screen messaging solution, is the brainchild of Christina Domecq, the co-founder and CEO of the firm. Although not an industry "veteran" like many of the other women on our list, Domecq exemplified the type of drive and innovation necessary to succeed in this industry. And she's also one of the few women to head up a successful new startup.

Read: On the Hot Seat with Christina Domecq, CEO of SpinVox

On the Hot Seat with Christina Domecq, CEO of SpinVox

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:35:45 -0400

London-based SpinVox burst onto the radar screen this year when it announced some key deals with North American operators including Alltel and Cincinnati Bell. The privately held firm, which has developed a compelling voice-to-screen messaging solution, is the brainchild of Christina Domecq, the co-founder and CEO of the firm. FierceWireless editor-in-chief Sue Marek recently spoke with Domecq about SpinVoxÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s business strategy and the serviceÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s appeal.

FierceWireless: How many deployments do you have with wireless operators?

Domecq: Globally you will see nine deployments between now and Christmas. Between the Alltel, Cincinnati we have another Canadian carrier we will be announcing shortly. YouÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll see five deployments between now and Christmas in North America.

FierceWireless: What is so compelling about the SpinVox service?

Domecq: I think itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the consumer demand that exists for additional voice services that are simply intuitive. ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s no training, no handset dependency. ThereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s really no application or downloading of an application. There are no barriers to entry for the consumers or carriers. There are no marketing dollars that have to be spent on training consumers. WeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re also seeing it positioned as an enterprise service and a consumer service. It appeals to both sides of the spectrum. Carriers are reporting increases in voice and text traffic during their trials and pilots. WeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re seeing somewhere around 17 percent increase in text traffic, and 7 percent in voice traffic all stimulated through the use of the service.

FierceWireless: There arenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t many applications that IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve heard of that would drive traffic in both areas.

Domecq: The most powerful thing is that after three days of using the service (during the free trial) we are seeing retention numbers of up to 80 percent. Every single carrier globally launches it as a free trial. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s an experience service. People talk about voice to text services but you canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t really get your head around it. But once they try the service there is a huge Ã¢â‚¬Å“wowÃ¢â‚¬Â moment. They try it for free, some carriers have a one-week trial, some two weeks or a month. We are seeing 80 percent retention rates on average when they go from free trial to pay. We are anxious with the number of deployments we have between now and Christmas to see if we maintain that retention rate. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s an intuitive and simple service.

FierceWireless: What is the typical monthly fee for this service?

Domecq: It depends on the marketplace. We have a U.K. deployment right now which is going to be free because the call continuity that is generated is enough for the carrier to make its business case successful. We have some carriers charging monthly rates of $5 per month to $10 per month. Some are charging on a transaction-based fee of 25 cents per transaction. So we are still young in the market. We are probably 12 to 18 months away from seeing the market reach a standard in the pricing space.

FierceWireless: You said the service is handset-agnostic. Does that mean you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have a client on the handset?

Domecq: ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s correct. ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s one of the enticing parts for the carrier. We integrate into their core network into their voicemail environment so there is no handset dependency.

FierceWireless: On the other hand, getting into the carrier core network must be a challenge.

Domecq: ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not easy. This company was founded about four years ago and we first started selling to consumers because we needed a proof of concept environment. After proving the concept, watching the take up rates and the retention rates and watching the impact on voice and text traffic, we started working with the carriers and building the business case. But itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s taken about 18 months to build the carrier momentum. Between now and Christmas we expect to close another five significant deals, including a Tier 1 carrier in the U.S.

FierceWireless: How does SpinVox make money?

Domecq: We are transaction-based. We charge the carrier per event. Very similar to the SMSC model.

FierceWireless: You also have Skype as a client. YouÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re customer base is bigger than just the wireless carriers.

Domecq: Absolutely. We also have a blog product. Clearly we have found that voice is simply an input method into text. ThatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a powerful application. We are using voice to cross the divide between the Web 2.0 environment and the telco space. We are positioning SpinVox as the glue between them.

FierceWireless: Are there more sophisticated applications on your roadmap?

Domecq: Yes. We also generate and push data revenues through MMS by embedding a WAP file. We also have missed-call messenger. Missed-call messenger is very powerful for non-voicemail markets or where penetration is lower. It drives call termination revenue for carriers. HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s how the product works: If I call you and you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have a voice mail, the call rings through. But instead we put an IVR in front of the customer, they speak a message and it gets sent from the customer as a text to the person on the go. We see it being very popular in the MVNO and pay-as-you-go space.

FEATURE: On the Hot Seat with Christina Domecq, CEO of SpinVox

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 06:59:53 -0400

Alltel to offer voice-to-text service in Q4

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:59:57 -0400

Alltel announced that it would launch a voice-to-text service from SpinVox in the fourth quarter of this year. The service converts voice messages to text and sends them directly to another user's cell phone. It works with any SMS-capable phone and requires no additional downloading. SpinVox has been developing the technology for four years, which it calls Voice-to-Screen.

The Marlow, U.K.-based company also reportedly has a deal with a bigger carrier in the U.S., which it will announce later this year. Regional carrier Cincinnati Bell already offers the service. In the U.K., there is talk of a launch from Vodafone, but the service is already available from Carphone Warehouse, which invested in SpinVox. The company's CEO Christina Domecq told the Guardian that SpinVox is always on the lookout for additional funding, whether private or an IPO. She indicated that there will be more news on the funding front come early next year.

For more on the launch:
- read this release
- also check out this article from the Guardian