Mobile Network Footprints
Understand the mobile network competitive landscape.
According to a 2021 study conducted by Pew Research , 97% of US adults have a cell phone. That's a total addressable market of hundreds of millions of people and growing.
Three brands dominate the US market: AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. When looking at the dominant mobile network provider for each census block group (CBG), clear regional patterns emerge.
Select a CBG to see which mobile network provider is used by most daily visitors, powered by SafeGraph Patterns data.
Regional trends also emerge when mapping the retail store locations of mobile providers, but tell a different story. While Verizon and AT&T are clearly the dominant mobile providers by census block group, T-Mobile has many more retail stores throughout the US for customers (or potential customers) to visit.
Click a point to learn more about each store location, powered by SafeGraph Places data.
Specifically looking at the Dallas metro area, T-Mobile and AT&T have the most retail stores. Click a point to learn more about each store location.
This aligns with the dominant mobile network for CBGs in the area. AT&T is by far the most widely-used carrier in the region, with some areas closer to the city of Dallas itself visited by predominantly T-Mobile users. Small pockets of Verizon-dominated CBGs can be seen throughout the area as well, but much less than in other parts of the country - or even state - as can be seen when looking to the east of Dallas.
Select a CBG to see which mobile network provider is used by most daily visitors.
Overlaying the CBG and retail store location data, it appears that in terms of both volume of retail store locations and number of users who visit CBGs, AT&T and T-Mobile are the main mobile network providers in the Dallas metro area.
Is the same true for the rest of the country? Do carriers with more retail store locations in an area tend to be the dominant network provider there? Use the map slider to compare the two datasets and find out.
Use the slider to compare mobile network provider retail store locations to dominant provider by CBG.
Let's now look at who is visiting each brand's store locations. Are visitors to AT&T mostly on the AT&T network already? Or are they on a competitor network and looking to switch? Similarly, are AT&T customers visiting T-Mobile or Verizon stores and considering a change?
Click a point to see a percentage breakdown of visitor mobile networks, powered by SafeGraph Patterns data.
Looking at select store locations in the New York metro area, we can see a breakdown of the mobile provider networks of visitors to each store.
For example, in December of 2021, only 14% of the visitors to the AT&T store at 350 Park Avenue in New York were on the AT&T network already. 43% of visitors were on T-Mobile, and 40% on Verizon.
Click a point to see a percentage breakdown of visitor mobile networks.
Are these visitors looking to switch mobile network providers? And if so, how do you reach them to either retain them as a customer or bring them over to your brand? To learn more about them and develop a targeted marketing strategy, let's see where else they spend time.
Use SafeGraph Patterns to understand where network users are spending their time.
For the most part, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile users visit the same stores, although differently. Walmart and McDonald's are the top brands visited by all users, and Starbucks is also popular among all three networks' users. However, AT&T users differ from T-Mobile and Verizon users in that they visit Shell gas stations more than Starbucks. Similarly, Taco Bell is a top ten brand visited by AT&T and Verizon users, but not T-Mobile users.
These consumer insights help identify the customer bases of the top three mobile network providers in the US, and how specific network users are spending their time. Combined with detailed competitive intelligence, this can inform targeted marketing efforts, advertising copy, retail store site selection, network planning, and more.
Looking to stay ahead of the competition and understand the mobile network landscape? Schedule a demo with SafeGraph to learn how high high-quality, fresh POI and consumer behavior data can help.
