Metro PCS 2008 Annual Report Download - page 36

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service with us. If such legislation is passed, it could have a material adverse affect on our business, financial
condition or operating results.
Future regulation
From time to time, federal, state or local government regulators enact new or revise existing legislation or
regulations that could affect us, either beneficially or adversely. Ongoing changes in the political and financial
climate may foster increased legislation or regulation. We cannot assure you that federal, state or local governments
will not enact legislation or that the FCC or other federal, state or local regulators will not adopt regulations or take
other actions that might adversely affect us.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Risks Related to Our Business
Our business strategy may not succeed in the long term.
We offer unlimited wireless broadband mobile services on a paid-in-advance basis for flat monthly rates without
requiring a long-term service contract or a credit check. This approach to marketing wireless broadband mobile
services may not prove to be successful in the long term. Some companies that offered this type of service in the
past were not successful. From time to time, we evaluate our products, service offerings and the demands of our
target customers and may, as a result, amend, change, discontinue or adjust our products, service offerings or initiate
or offer new permanent, trial or promotional product or service offerings. These new or changed product and service
offerings may not be successful or prove to be profitable.
A failure to meet the demands of our customers, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and
operating results.
Customer demand for our products and services could be impacted by numerous factors including the different
types of products and services offered, service content, technology, handset options, service areas, network quality,
customer perceptions, customer care levels and the prices and range of service plans and products. Managing these
factors and customers’ expectations of these factors is essential in attracting and retaining customers. We must
continually incur costs in order to improve and enhance our products and services to remain competitive, which may
include costs to expand the capacity and coverage of our network, costs to replace or migrate to new vendors or
services, purchase additional spectrum, purchase necessary infrastructure equipment, handsets and related
accessories to meet customer needs and secure the necessary governmental approvals and renewals for our
operations. Delays or failure to purchase additional spectrum or to make these enhancements to our products,
services or network, could limit our ability to meet customer expectations. Further, even if we continually upgrade
and maintain our networks and enhance our products and services, there can be no assurance that our existing
customers will not switch to another wireless provider. If we are unable to meet customer expectations as to these
factors, we may have difficulty attracting and retaining customers, which could impair our financial performance
and could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
We may not be successful in continuing to grow our customer base.
Our business plan assumes continued growth in our customer base. Our ability to continue the growth of our
customer base and achieve the customer penetration levels that we currently believe are possible with our business
model in our markets is subject to a number of risks, including:
• increased competition from existing competitors or new competitors;
• higher than anticipated churn in our markets;
• our inability to increase our network capacity in areas we currently serve to meet increasing customer demand
and our inability due to limitations in customer service, billing and other systems to meet customer
expectations and demands;
• our inability to continue to offer products or services which our current or prospective customers want;