Mobile Network Providers - US - March 2015
Scope and Themes
 
What you need to know
Mintel expects mobile network provider revenue to reach $222 billion in 2019. The market has historically benefited from significant increases in smartphone ownership and parallel growth in data plans. However, increased price competitiveness has placed pressure on the industry and created barriers to continued revenue growth.

This report provides guidance for mobile network providers and advertisers by identifying consumer spending habits and opinions regarding mobile services. Other topics in this report include consumer satisfaction with existing cellular service, desired improvements for mobile services, consumer opinions regarding path-to-purchase, and the types of cell phone plans consumers subscribe to.

This report builds on the analysis presented in Mintel’s Mobile Service Providers – US, March 2014, as well as Mobile Service Providers – US, February 2013 and Mobile Phone Service – US, February 2012.

Definition
Mintel defines the mobile network provider market to include payments to telecommunications carriers for wireless service. Mobile voice and data communication among adults aged 18+ is the focus of the report.

Value figures throughout this report are at retail selling prices (rsp) excluding sales tax unless otherwise stated.

Data sources
Sales data
●	Market Size and Forecast: based on data from CTIA-The Wireless Association which includes revenues paid to mobile network providers for wireless services, from both prepaid and subscription plans. Forecast developed by Mintel.
●	Leading Companies: FCC’s 17th Annual Mobile Wireless Competition Report.

Consumer survey data
For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through Lightspeed GMI to explore consumer habits and opinions regarding mobile networks and services. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in December 2014 among a sample of 2,000 adults aged 18+ with access to the internet.

Mintel selects survey respondents by gender, age, household income, and region so that they are proportionally representative of the US adult population using the internet. Mintel also slightly oversamples, relative to the population, respondents that are Hispanic or Black to ensure an adequate representation of these groups in our survey results and to allow for more precise parameter estimates from our reported findings. Please note that our surveys are conducted online and in English only. Hispanics who are not online and/or do not speak English are not included in our survey results.

Mintel has also analyzed data from Experian Marketing Services, using the Simmons National Consumer Study (NCS).

The Experian Marketing Services, Simmons NCS/NHCS was carried out during January 2014-September 2014 and the results are based on the sample of 11,490 adults aged 18+ who own cell phones, with results weighted to represent the US adult population.

Additional data from Experian Marketing Services, Simmons NCS/NHCS is included for January 2011-September 2011, January 2012-August 2012, January 2013-September 2013 and January 2014-September 2014.

While race and Hispanic origin are separate demographic characteristics, Mintel often compares them to each other. Please note that the responses for race (White, Black, Asian, Native American, or other race) will overlap those that also are Hispanic, because Hispanics can be of any race.

Consumer qualitative research
In addition to quantitative consumer research, Mintel also conducted an online discussion group among a demographically mixed group of adults aged 18+. This discussion group was asynchronous (ie, not run in real time), functioning like a blog or bulletin board, with questions remaining posted for a predetermined period of time. This method allows participants to respond reflectively, at their leisure, or to log off to think about any issues raised, and return later to respond. Participants were recruited from Lightspeed GMI’s online consumer panel with responses collected in November 2014. All quotes are included verbatim, and as such, include typos and other grammatical errors as they originally appeared.

Abbreviations and terms
Abbreviations
The following is a list of abbreviations used in this report.

ARPU | Average revenue per user
CAGR | Compound annual growth rate
EBITDA | Earnings before interest, taxes, debt, and amortization
FCC | Federal Communications Commission
GHz | Gigahertz
M2M | Machine-to-machine, referring to communications between electronic devices without intervention from humans
MHz | Megahertz
NHCS | National Consumer Study/National Hispanic Consumer Study (Experian Marketing Services)

Terms
Backhaul | The portion of a wireless network responsible for transferring data loads from remote access points to the network backbone.
Broadband Personal Communications Service (PCS) | Spectrum that uses frequencies in the 1850-1990 MHz range.
Internet of Things (IoT) | The trend through which there is an increasing number of internet-connected devices that interact and share data without active human involvement.
Spectrum | The frequencies at which wireless signals travel.

In order to provide an inflation-adjusted price value for markets, Mintel uses the CPI to deflate current prices. The CPI is defined as follows:

CPI

The Consumer Price Index is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.
The CPI and its components are typically used to adjust other economic series for price changes and to translate these series into inflation-free dollars. Examples of series adjusted by the CPI include retail sales, hourly and weekly earnings, and components of the national income and product accounts. In addition, and in Mintel reports, the CPI is used as a deflator of the value of the consumer’s dollar to find its purchasing power. The purchasing power of the consumer's dollar measures the change in the value to the consumer of goods and services that a dollar will buy at different dates.
The CPI is generally the best measure for adjusting payments to consumers when the intent is to allow consumers to purchase, at today’s prices, a market basket of goods and services equivalent to one that they could purchase in an earlier period. It is also the best measure to use to translate retail sales into real or inflation-free dollars.
Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics definition.