Cingular's data agenda: operator stakes its place in the wireless data world by touting simple services such as text messaging and being open to off-portal players with good business practices.(Service Providers)

Wireless Week, June, 2005 by Marek, Sue

Cingular Wireless may not be touting fancy video services or 3D games like some of its carrier competitors, but the operator is making significant strides in the data arena. In fact, Cingular earned a respectable $3.70 in data average revenue per user (ARPU) in the first quarter, a 28 percent increase over the previous quarter.

Not bad, considering Cingular has remained fairly low-key about its data services, eschewing advertising campaigns that flaunt the company's downloads and multimedia services in favor of those that talk about the Cingular network and airtime rates.

By comparison, Verizon Wireless had a first-quarter data ARPU of $3.11 and Sprint led the industry with a data ARPU of $6. However, analysts are quick to point out that both...