Peter, While true in the simple sense, for this industry that is not always the case at this point. You need to remember that the larger WISPs continue to convert revenue into CAPEX as they scale and seek to capture new markets. I know many operators that tell me if they stopped investing in new markets they would be pretty much instantly profitable at this point. This is especially true of newer entrants.
Also, when BWA is but a PART of the total business (and that is USUALLY the case), you need to look at the wireless play within integrated business. For example, consider the long (good empirical data) example of Midwest Wireless, based in Mankato, MN. Midwest also has around 400k cellular subscribers. Interestingly, when Midwest bundles a cellular sub with BWA service, the cellular churn for that customer drops to almost literally zero. That has a direct impact on the total bottom line. Similar examples can be found throughout the industry. Patrick Leary AVP Marketing Alvarion, Inc. o: 650.314.2628 c: 760.580.0080 Vonage: 650.641.1243 -----Original Message----- From: Peter R. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 3:13 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] This is HUGE! Because number of subs is the measuring stick. Revenue is more important; but profit is the most important. Not many can speak to profit, so they measure in subs. - Peter Matt Liotta wrote: > Not sure why the number of customers is even important when the > quality of customers can vary so wildly. I run into WISPs regularly > whose ARPU is barely above $100. At 1000 customers an ARPU of $100 is > only $1.2M per year. That's a lot of radios and a lot of customers for > very little revenue. Compare this to CBeyond, which is an > Atlanta-based CLEC that in recent time went public. Today they have > about 17,000 customers, but their ARPU is $761. With just 1000 > customers, an ARPU of $761 would be worth $9.1M. Or to look at it a > different way, with 17,000 customers an ARPU of $100 would only be > $20.4M compared with the $155.2M they pull in now. > > A WISP would be wise to raise their ARPU as opposed to the number of > customers. > > -Matt -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ **************************************************************************** ******** This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by PineApp Mail-SeCure for the presence of malicious code, vandals & computer viruses. **************************************************************************** ******** **************************************************************************** ******** This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by PineApp Mail-SeCure for the presence of malicious code, vandals & computer viruses. **************************************************************************** ******** -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
