Cricket Wireless 2010 Annual Report Download - page 10

maintain low customer acquisition costs through focused sales and marketing initiatives and cost-effective
distribution strategies.
•Continue to Develop Innovative and Value-Driven Products and Services. We continue to develop and
evolve our product and service offerings to better meet the needs of our target customer segments. During
recent years, we introduced our Cricket Broadband and Cricket PAYGo service offerings. This past year, we
introduced “all-inclusive” rate plans for all of our Cricket service plans and significantly expanded our
handset and device lineup, which included the introduction of “smartphones.” In early 2011, we launched
Muve Music, an unlimited music download service designed specifically for mobile handsets, in select
Cricket markets, and we expect to expand its availability throughout 2011. We believe that these new service
plans and product offerings will be attractive to customers and help improve our competitive positioning in
the marketplace. We expect to continue to develop our product and service offerings in 2011 and beyond.
•Continue to Build our Brand and Strengthen and Expand Our Distribution. We are focused on building our
brand awareness in our markets and improving the productivity of our distribution system. Since our target
customer base is diversified geographically, ethnically and demographically, our marketing programs are
designed to support local customization in order to better target our advertising expenses. We are continuing
to redesign and re-merchandize our stores to help improve customer experience and reinforce the value of
the products and services we offer. To help strengthen and expand our distribution, we plan to significantly
expand our number of premier dealer locations in 2011, which are third party retail locations with the look
and feel of company-owned stores. We also plan to continue to strengthen and expand our presence in
national mass-market retail locations. We also continue to target potential new customers through the
internet.
•Enhance Network Capacity and Service Coverage. As of December 31, 2010, the combined network
footprint in our operating markets covered approximately 95.3 million POPs. We expect to continue to
enhance our network capacity in many of our markets, thereby allowing us to offer our customers an even
higher-quality service area. We also currently plan to deploy next-generation LTE network technology over
the next few years, with a commercial trial market scheduled to be launched in late 2011. In addition to our
Cricket network footprint, we have entered into roaming relationships with other wireless carriers that
provide Cricket customers with nationwide voice and data roaming services over an extended service area
covering approximately 285 million POPs. We have also entered into a wholesale agreement which permits
us to offer Cricket services outside of our current network footprint. These arrangements enable us to offer
enhanced Cricket products and services, continue to strengthen our growing retail presence in our existing
markets and further expand our distribution nationwide.
Cricket Business Operations
Products and Services
Cricket Wireless Service Plans. Our Cricket Wireless service plans are designed to attract customers by
offering simple, predictable and affordable nationwide voice and data services that are a competitive alternative to
traditional wireless and wireline services. We offer service on a flat-rate, unlimited usage basis, without requiring
fixed-term contracts, early termination fees or credit checks.
Our most popular Cricket Wireless rate plans bundle certain features with unlimited local and U.S. long
distance service and unlimited text messaging along with mobile web, 411 services, navigation and data back-up.
We also offer a flexible payment option, BridgePay
TM
, which gives our customers greater flexibility in the use of and
payment for our Cricket Wireless service and which we believe helps us to retain customers.
In August 2010, we introduced “all-inclusive” rate plans for all of our Cricket Wireless service plans in which
we eliminated certain fees (such as activation, reactivation and regulatory fees) and telecommunications taxes. We
also eliminated the free first month of service we previously provided to new customers of our Cricket Wireless
service that purchased a handset or modem and instead decreased the retail prices of many of our devices. We also
eliminated certain late fees we previously charged to customers who reinstated their service after having failed to
pay their monthly bill on time.
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