It’s all about Cingular. Cingular is the largest wireless carrier in the US and has extraordinary growth potential. The entire wireless market is still growing as mobile phones are overtaking landlines and providing email and internet right in our hand. Wireless carriers have great growth rates with less risk due to our dependency on mobile phones.

In the fourth quarter of 2006 Cingular almost quadrupled their earnings and added 2.36 million subscribers. They also lowered their turnover rate (churn) from 2.1% to 1.8% according to the Financial Times. Data Plans have been a large contributer to earnings growth. Data plan revenue among cell phone carriers jumped 84% in 2006 according to a report by Chetan Sharma. Merrill Lynch recently upgraded AT&T siting growth from mobile subscribers adding on data plans along with other increasing sources of revenue.

As the mobile phone market eventually moves toward saturation, growth will come from pulling subscribers in from other wireless carriers. Although the wireless carriers are still growing, Cingular is in the best position to steal customers for a couple reasons.

1) The iPhone – Providing a much anticipated phone exclusively through Cingular will bring people from all other wireless carriers to Cingular. View some of the Buzz
2) Superior Service – Cingular has been shown, through a study by Telephia, to have the fewest dropped calls across the nation. They also offer inexpensive plans that allow you to call other Cingular and AT&T customers as much as you want. Other great features include roll-over minutes and push-to-talk.
3) International Presence – The next frontier for wireless carriers will be the global market and Cingular is already moving in this direction by partnering with wireless carriers around the world. Today AT&T made a bid for Telecom Italia as they push to expand around the globe.

On top of all these great growth and acquisition stories, the Market Flavor theory is that if the stock market continues to slide, AT&T is a great safety play. It's well know that AT&T pays almost a 4% dividend. To add to that we are arguing that with our continued reliance on cell phones, Cingular will hold strong in a market downturn. This Australian study shows us how reliant people have become to their cell phones. But to be honest we are pretty much all addicted to cell phones according to this cell phone addiction checklist. With our addiction to our cell phones, Cingular should stay strong in a weak market.

AT&T now receives all the benefits of Cingular's success due to the recent acquisition of SBC. To add to that, AT&T has their own superior services that add to and compliment Cingular. AT&T has finally realized that long distance service and landlines are a thing of the past. With this realization they have embraced the internet. They are now offering Telephone over the internet (VOIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol) and TV service though the internet in certain markets. This brilliant realization, along with the growth of Cingular, makes AT&T a great stock to own.

The Market Flavor analysis shows that AT&T Inc (T) is a strong company with a lot of potential. The main reason we are so excited about AT&T is the protection is can provide in this uncertain stock market, making it a less risky investment.

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Posted on April 2, 2007 4:48 PM | Digg | del.icio.us