Can Rural or Small Mobile Companies Really Compete?

It remains a challenging prospect for any smaller or non-dominant mobile service provider to compete with the likes of AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint or T-Mobile USA, for lots of reasons. Still, some 62 percent of independent telcos surveyed by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association say they are now providing wireless service to their customers.

Of course, in a scale business, the respondents worry about competition with the larger mobile companies, of course. 

Some 92 percent of respondents cited competition from national carriers as their chief concern. Negotiating roaming agreements also remains challenging, with 69 percent of respondents saying that negotiating data roaming and in-market roaming agreements with other carriers is moderately to extremely difficult.


About 38 percent of the respondents not currently offering wireless service indicated 
they are considering doing so.  Some 53 percent have previously considered offering 
wireless service and deemed it not feasible, while nine percent have never considered offering wireless services. 


Survey respondents serve an average (mean) of 9,968 wireless subscribers with an average of 38 cell sites.  A few larger respondents skew these numbers upwards, though. 

The median number of wireless subscribers is 1,601 and the median number of cell sites is nine.  

The average customer’s monthly wireless bill is between $50 and $60, and the typical 
customer uses just over 600 minutes monthly