Apple’s LTE-supportive iPhone 5 outlines new game plans among US-carriers

Apple’s new iPhone 5 will spring a cut throat competition in the US, where wireless carriers are going one another tooth and nail. The new handset fresh from Cupertino has 4G LTE wireless technology support and the likes of AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless are marketing their services to be superior.

Although the main competition is between AT&T and Verizon, who both have a large customer shares, Sprint is also catching root in the race. Though it does not have a wide network range as AT&T, much less Verizon, it promotes its services with unlimited data packages.

AT&T, with iPhone since 2007, has oldest customers with it, most of whom have their cellular contracts on the verge of expiration. Therefore, it expects more sales in terms of switching from iPhone 4 or 3GS to the new model. It covers 62 markets with 74 Million users but plans to reach at least 150 million customers by the end of this year.

Verizon has the fastest growing LTE network with up and running 371 markets and is marketing itself for reaching 75 percent of the US territory.

“Verizon has been stepping up the advertisements highlighting their LTE coverage superiority,” said Kevin Smithen, an analyst at Macquarie Capital.

Apple has let the game begin and now it is the carriers’ turn to play ball. Verizon has the most potential of being the primary beneficiary but it is being careful not to over advertise itself for the fear of further subsidies and benefits from AT&T, who can afford anything to be dominant.

However, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo seemed optimistic while taking to the media at the Bank of America conference Wednesday. “Given our LTE build program and where we stand vs. our competitors — having double the coverage of all of them combined — I think strategically we’re in a very, very good spot,” he said.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Sep 14 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.