U.S. Cellular
For U.S. Cellular, 2010 was a year of great innovation and exciting transition, tempered by challenging economic conditions and intense competition.
Differentiating through the Customer Experience
The Belief ProjectSM, launched in October, leveraged U.S. Cellular's heritage of customer focus to elevate
the wireless customer experience with an exclusive set of services and features.
By the end of February 2011,
1.7 million new and existing customers had selected U.S. Cellular Belief Plans and were enjoying one-and-done contracts, faster phone upgrades, loyalty points, overage protection and forgiveness, phone replacement with premium plans, and discounts for automatic payment.
Increasing Smartphone Sales and Data Use
In addition to launching The Belief Project, U.S. Cellular brought Android®-powered devices to its customers in 2010,
including the popular Samsung Mesmerize™ (a Galaxy S™ smartphone) and Samsung Galaxy Tab™.
This helped to drive very strong growth in smartphone sales, which led to greater use of data services and, in turn,
slightly higher average revenue per customer. At the end of 2010, smartphone customers were nearly
17 percent of U.S. Cellular's postpaid base, compared to seven percent at the end of 2009, and smartphones were 25 percent of the total devices sold in 2010.
While the subsidies for higher-end smartphones are substantial and reduce profitability in the short term,
U.S. Cellular anticipates that the higher lifetime value of smartphone customers will justify these initial expenses.
Ensuring Outstanding Communications Experiences
As the amount of data on U.S. Cellular's network more than tripled in 2010, the company maintained the highest call quality and network satisfaction of any nationwide carrier, according to Nielsen data. U.S. Cellular strengthened its network capacity and coverage by adding 366 new cell sites and expanding and upgrading its network equipment. The company completed its 4G/LTE technical trials, and obtained vendor proposals for LTE implementation that will begin in 2011.
Improving Agility and Efficiency
In 2009, U.S. Cellular began work on multi-year enablement initiatives designed to enhance its understanding of customers and help the company develop, market, sell and deliver services faster and more effectively. In 2010, U.S. Cellular selected a vendor to implement its largest initiative, the Billing and Operational Support System. The company also transitioned to a new website platform that enables customers to activate service, purchase devices and plans, and manage their accounts online. And, through the Enterprise Data Warehouse / Customer Relationship Management initiative, U.S. Cellular is more effectively targeting recommendations to customers.