The Globe and Mail: ‘Rogers is a Victim of Its Own Success’

Rogers is set to announce its quarterly earnings this Wednesday, and many analysts are speculating the carrier will release numbers that show a levelling off in growth within its wireless division, notes The Globe and Mail:

Rogers’ early success with the iPhone has given it the largest base of iPhone users in the country. When Apple releases a new version, Rogers reserves a substantial portion of its allotment for existing customers who want to upgrade. By prioritizing existing customers, Rogers fails to capitalize on some potential new accounts. In addition, analysts speculate that the company faced tight supply for the latest iPhone 4S last quarter.

In the previous 2011 Q3 report, Rogers noted their quarter was directly influenced by heightened competition. It appears the upcoming Q4 will be a continuation of that.

When Rogers had exclusive rights to the iPhone 3G in Canada, it was able to sign up far more newer customers and earn more data revenue compared to its rivals Telus and Bell. However, that exclusivity didn’t last long as Telus and Bell got rights to the iPhone 3GS a year later.

The playing field has evened out and UBS Securities analyst Philip Huang predicts Rogers’ new sign ups of postpaid customers will be significantly less compared to Telus and Bell. Maher Yaghi from Desjardins Securities forecasts the important barometer of average revenue per user (ARPU) actually declined for Rogers by 3.5% compared to increases by its rivals in the range of 1 to 4 percent.

Bell and Telus decided to join hands to launch their HSPA+ 3G network, and have also done the same with their latest LTE networks. This has allowed these two carriers to share the costs of maintaining infrastructure compared to Rogers managing their EDGE/3G/LTE networks on their own.

The landscape has changed significantly for Canadians when it comes to the iPhone. The iPhone 4S was available this year from Rogers, Telus, Bell, Fido, Virgin, MTS Allstream, and SaskTel. We’ve seen the ‘Big 3’ trying to compete with each other by introducing various voice and data plans.

When it comes down to choosing a network in Canada for your iPhone, Canadians now appear to be make decisions based on customer service and loyalty pricing, instead of just availability. Do you agree? Who’s your current iPhone carrier? Take our poll below!


[via Globe and Mail]

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