AT&T Chief Exec Not Worried At Thought of Losing Apple Exclusivity

[Maura]

MarketWatch reports today that AT&T's chief executive, Randall Stephenson, told an investor conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs that even if AT&T loses its exclusivity deal with Apple, he believes that it will still keep many of the customers it has gained because of the iPhone, because so many of them are locked into AT &T with long-term contracts and therefore won't be able to just ditch AT&T and head off to another carrier.

"If you look at the iPhone base, about 80 percent is either on a family-talk plan or in a business relationship with us," Stephenson told the conference. "Those customers tend to be very sticky. They don't churn very frequently."

Stephenson also told AT&T investors, many of who are worried by the prospect of losing iPhone exclusivity to the widely touted Verizon Wireless, that approximately two-thirds of the company's current iPhone customer base already had a contract with AT&T even prior to getting an iPhone. It would seem that some other business experts agree with Stephenson's more upbeat assessment of the situation, with Credit Suisse upgrading AT&T to a buy rating recently, according to MarketWatch, and stating that the company should still be able to maintain growth even if it lost its exclusivity status with Apple.

Source: MarketWatch

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[iPhoneAddict]

I don't believe people would run to Verizon either. Especially with those growing pains they would be stuck to go through.

[bknewtype]

people arent going to switch over if they already have an existing contract, however, when their contracts are over, im sure a lot of them would def. switch to verizon for the fact that they can buy the iphone at that time for a discounted price and sell the iphone 4 back out, and make more for it. verizon service is MUCH better for new york in my opinion, so i dont think people would hesitate to switch to verizon once they obtain the iphone or when their contracts are up. im the only dumbo that switched from verizon to ATT lol

[NeonSector]

I would cancel all 4 lines and run.
I hope that sprint gets the iphone on their 4g network.
I have excellent service here in Tucson az, plus they have the best plans available.

[hoserama]

I would switch contract or no contract. A company that denies network and dropped call issues when it's customer base complains regularly needs a wake up call.

[Edge1978]

I wouldn't switch. I have never had any problem with AT&T, if I did they rectified it. Plus I have much better service here in Pa.