AT&T AND COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

AT&T and Competitor Analysis

AT&T and Competitor Analysis

Introduction

AT & T Corporation or American Telephone and Telegraph Company (a completely owned subsidiary of American Bell Telephone Company) was founded on third March 1885, New York. The main task was to organize and develop a growing loss of the American company Bell and its licensees. AT&T has about 51,000 employees outside the United States, in 1994, international sales of only 25 percent (Kraus and Duerig 2008). The company is now present in more than 100 countries of the world and operated in about 200 countries. This paper presents the competitor analysis of the company.

Discussion

The AT&T brand is recognized worldwide by people spanning five generations and over 200 countries. Voice and data services are provided through a secure and reliable network to maximize consumer satisfaction (Marchand 2008). Phones and tablets are high quality and updated constantly, reflecting the most up to date technology available. Consumers are able to purchase through multiple interfaces including online, AT&T stores, kiosks and authorized dealers. It is an industry leader in research and development of technology. The company maintains a strong financial statement including 3 consecutive years of increased revenue in wire line and wireless segments. Markets include consumer, business and some government, education and medical contracts (Griese 2009).

There are over 50 companies with only six top companies in the cell phone industry that controls 80 percent of the market. Below are financial highlights showing how well the four cell phone service companies that are occupying the market are faring.

Financials Highlights

Sprint

Verizon

Cingular

T-Mobile

Revenues (2005)

34680.0 M

27662.0 M

19436.0 M

9366.0 M

Revenues Growth (1 yr)

26.4%

23.00%

25.5%

12.1%

Number of Employees (2006)

79,990

49,880

70,330

22,656

Employees' growth (year on year)

33.4 %

13.4 %

78.4 %

5.1 %

AT&T

Verizon

Sprint

T-Mobile

Key Success Factor 1

Metric 1 - Yr 1

21

32

12

15

Metric 1 - Yr 2

10

15

25

36

Metric 1 - Yr 3

24

25

26

27

Metric 2 - Yr 1

25000

35000

2200

23000

Metric 2 - Yr 2

5%

7%

6%

9%

Metric 2 - Yr 3

1.25

1.55

1.05

1.40

Metric 3 - Yr 1

24

36

72

96

Metric 3 - Yr 2

83

89

92

80

Metric 3 - Yr 3

0.25

0.20

0.15

0.18

Internal Weaknesses

As of February of this year, AT&T lost its status as the exclusive service provider for the Apple iPhone, the December 2010 Consumer Report rated AT&T as the lowest in customer satisfaction among U.S. cell-phone carriers. AT&T is losing some market share to new carriers emerging in the market, some of which have phone plans with unlimited minutes, text messaging and data for a lower cost than the most basic AT&T plan. AT&T was the subject of controversy regarding privacy following allegations that the carrier provided international and domestic call to the NSA without warrants or customer consent (NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls); other allegations have been made claiming that AT&T allowed NSA agents to monitor phone and internet communications (Marchand 2008). The 2008 decision to filter the networks internet traffic for violations of intellectual property caused some customers to choose other providers and is the reason some prospective customers choose competitors over AT&T.

External Opportunities

Increasing demand for low cost plans due to increasing unemployment rate and economic contraction has caused some customers to leave AT&T and deterred new customers concerned with price ...