“Consumers pay $200 for the base model of the iPhone 4S, but Apple charges carriers about $600 for it. Carriers count on making their money back in service fees over the life of the contract,” Peter Svensson reports for The Associated Press.
“U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon told analysts on an earnings conference call Friday that ‘the terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint,'” Svensson reports. “She didn’t provide any details, but said the added load the iPhone could have placed on its data network was not a big consideration.”
Svensson reports, “Chicago-based U.S. Cellular has 5.9 million subscribers, a number that has been shrinking slowly over the past two and a half years. Only a quarter of its subscribers on contract-based plans have smartphones, compared with half at AT&T Inc.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “U.S. Cellular. We settle for less than the very best.”
Oh, wait, that sounds awful. How about: “U.S. Cellular. Second-rate or worse all the way!” Uh… “U.S. Cellular. Inferior phones to match our network.” Sigh… “U.S. Cellular. Cheap, shortsighted, and shrinking.”
Boy, after this news, it’s tough to make a good slogan for U.S. Cellular.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
What’s unacceptable? Buy our phone, make tons of money?
Wow, she could be the next CEO of HP with management skills like that.
Consider me gone when my contract is up. How’s that for unacceptable business terms?
They’re the worst.
I don’t think I’ve heard of U.S. Cellular, there’s a fifth US carrier?
I’m not being sarcastic, that’s an honest comment.
Cornstalk carrier. Owned by Chicago-based Telephone and Data Systems (TDS), a regional telecom CLEC (or Local exchange carrier (LEC) in some midwest locations.
U.S. Cellular (USC) used to be a great mid-west service. Had it from 97 until the iPhone 2G came out. Never had a dropped call, always wondered what other people were complaining about until I got the iPhone.
If USC got the iPhone I and 5 family members would switch at first chance.
Daughter and son-in-law have to use USC due to where they live. The U.S.Cellular rep sold them “U.S. Cellular iPhones”, U.S.C’s words.
They’re just HTC Heros running Android. My kids know the difference but don’t have many options since AT&T isn’t in a hurry to put up a tower nearby.
Having played with their phones, I’m not impressed by Android.
“We’re U.S. Cellular. We don’t have the iPhone.” That’s one way to differentiate yourself.
U.S. Cellular. “Think Different. Or not.”
“U.S. Cellular. Think Indifferent.”
U.S. Cellular. “We don’t think.”
It’s amazing to me how short sighted some of these CEO’s are.
Let us see here — sold food products (Quaker Oats) and fast food (McDonalds). Dosen’t this sound like the guy who sold sugar water? How does one move from food to technology products and expect to understand that dynamic market? Oh well, we will see how this all works out.
That’s turning the old stereotype on its head! To think the company based in Mississippi decided it wasn’t worth losing subscribers.
how bout “US Sillier..We’ve got to be joking.”
Lolz
This really p!sses me off. I have been a loyal customer for many years. Their call service has been unsurpassed with only one dropped call in about 7 years and their customer service is unbelievable. The only place I have ever had problems was while working in the nether lands of northern Texas. Could barely place calls and the few that got through were roaming. But they changed my plan retroactively and I paid only about $10 extra for that month instead of the 2 bills the roaming was charged at.
Because of their outstanding customer service and call quality I have refused to switch carriers. I refuse to get a crapdroid also so I have just used a featureless phone and lived with it. Now that I know they had their chance and didn’t take it I’ll be switching to an iPhone on whichever carrier has the best coverage in the area to which I choose to move come the 1st of the year.
Morons…
Please send them your story. Losing you after all their great service and your loyalty is a crystal-clear illustration of what a bad move this is.
That’s a great idea! I think I will do just that. Thanks, Seamus.
Call reliability has improved enormously on AT&T in the last couple of years, at least in my region. Verizon is good in places too. Sprint probably has the clearest quality but drops more calls. Don’t like management on any of them though.
In which region are you, m159?
I continue to experience frequent dropped calls with AT&T. I really have not noticed an improvement even though I am always reading how AT&T is upgrading their towers and network.
Can you just get a service plan and bring your own iPhone to the party
CDMA phones can’t be unlocked.
Only one dropped call because you and only about 10 people are using the same tower at a time 😉
Is U.S. Cellular a GSM carrier? Get an unlocked (or unlock yourself?) and then install US Cell SIM?
No it’s CDMA. Like verizon, sprint and C Spire. The CEO of US Cellular is a piece of crap she should do herself a favor, she should kill herself. Perfect opportunity to get the iPhone and she said no. Carriers wish they had the iPhone and US Cell turned them down, stupid. They say, be with the happiest customers in wireless, yeah right!
Typical Republican.
Even for you bloodthirsty woman haters, isn’t suicide a bit drastic?
Isn’t turning down apple drastic.
For your info I respect women they have great ideas. Also I don’t follow politics I’m just a kid.
” (subscribers) a number that has been shrinking slowly over the past two and a half years.”
they probably thought (like lots of people) that Android etc will save their ass. 4-5 years ago there were countless articles that iPhone would fail (e.g Dvorak) and Android will be ‘just as good and profitable as the iPhone’ (remember Verizon threw 100 million in to advertise the first Moto Droid thinking it would sell in iPhone millions of units , took a trashing in losing subs, before finally agreeing to carry iPhone at Apple terms).
Now after steady loss of subscribers US Cell is trying to cover up their screw up by saying terms were un acceptable.
dudes and dudettes: making less money is better than losing money (as they are with subs jumping ship) .
carriers : don’t carry iPhone with iCloud and Siri and you will go extinct.
“U.S. Cellular – Because you really don’t want to have to learn how to use a smartphone, do you?”
Amazing. If the cost was so prohibitive for an iPhone, then other carriers wouldn’t be beating down Apple’s door to get it. iPhone owners also tend to buy additional services, like unlimited texting plans, more talk minutes, add additional iPhones with data plans, etc.
Be sure to add CEO Mary Dillon to the Darwin Awards list on behalf of U.S. Cellular.
She’s prepping to becoming Baldy Balmer’s replacement at MS.
We’re U.S. Cellular. Join us, we’re iPhone free to prove we don’t let anyone take advantage of us.
I was a loyal US Cellular customer for many years. Switched to IPhone in 2008 and never looked back.
Even the phones that US Cellular does offer are slightly updated versions of obsolete Android designs, like the HTC Hero S and the Motorola Electrify. It would have been embarrassing for the iPhone to be included in this company.
Hmm!
So, the fact that the phone just fliesout of the shelves is not enough to convinc US Celular to start carrying it? That and the fact that you are slowly loosing your subscribers?
Not enough?
You can flash a CDMA iPhone to another carrier. Takes a little more work then just unlocking but it can be done. Sprint has already said it will sell an unlocked iPhone layer this year