churn

Twitter data shows trending topics tend to change rapidly

Twitter has taken a deeper look into how quickly its users change the terms or phrases they tweet on a given topic, or their churn rate, and released some of this data today.

For example, when Steve Jobs passed away, people began rapidly including "Steve Jobs" in their tweets, but a short while later "Apple" began trending, then "Pixar," and finally "Stay foolish."

"Looking at terms and phrases in Tweets and in real-time search queries, we see that the most frequent terms in one hour or day tend to be very … Read more

AT&T: iPhone users sticking with us

iPhone users have not fled AT&T in droves now that Apple's smartphone is no longer exclusive to the carrier--or at least that's how AT&T tells it.

Glen Lurie, president of emerging devices for AT&T, told MarketWatch that "churn has not moved at all." Churn is an industry term referring to customers who cancel services.

He added that AT&T has seen record sales of the new iPhone 4S, despite customers having to wait as long as two weeks for the new device to show up. Lurie credits part of Apple's seemingly boundless potential for growth to more IT managers allowing the iPhone into the enterprise for business use by employees.

Lurie refused to play favorites though, telling MarketWatch that other manufacturers like Nokia and RIM--maker of the BlackBerry--shouldn't be counted out in the battle for smartphone market share.… Read more

A beginner's guide to telecom jargon

The mobile world moves at a breakneck pace, and it's difficult to keep up--even without the technical jargon most industry insiders throw around. And they do love to toss those terms about.

Whether it's the difference between CDMA and GSM, the importance of backhaul to the speed of your connection, or what metering means, it's easy to have information blow over your head when reading about this field.

So for some light Saturday reading, we thought it would be nice to explain what exactly telecom experts are talking about when they use these terms they assume everyone … Read more

T-Mobile earnings fall as customers depart

A first-ever loss in customers for T-Mobile USA took its toll on sales and earnings during the fourth quarter.

For the quarter ended December 31, the mobile carrier suffered a total loss of 23,000 subscribers, compared with gains of 137,000 in the third quarter and 371,000 in 2009's final quarter. The churn rate measuring the overall customer exits rose to 3.6 percent in the quarter, up from 3.3 percent a year ago.

The exodus of subscribers pushed down fourth-quarter earnings to $268 million, down from $306 million in the prior year's quarter. Sales … Read more

Verizon thumps chest after AT&T's subscriber gains

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Verizon Wireless added 1.1 million subscribers in the second quarter, the company said Friday.

The timing of the news is odd given that Verizon reports earnings on Monday. This news couldn't wait a few more days?

Apparently not. After all, AT&T's second quarter highlighted 1.4 million subscriber gains, with a major boost from the release of the iPhone 3GS in mid-June.

Verizon Wireless also noted that it had 87.7 million customers at the end of the quarter. AT&T said it had … Read more

Sprint breaks up with high-maintenance customers

The squeaky wheel doesn't always get the grease.

At least not if the squeaky wheel is a Sprint Nextel customer. On June 29, 2007, Sprint sent letters notifying some customers that their service would be canceled by the end of July due to excessive calls to customer service.

"Our records indicate that over the past year, we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or other general account information," the letter reads. "While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have … Read more