Cequint - Top Wireless Company 2008: FierceWireless, Fierce 15

A medley of smart startups and engaging entrepreneurs

Fierce Wireless – Sue Marek – April 29, 2008 –Despite wireless carrier consolidation and an 84 percent penetration rate, the U.S. wireless industry remains vibrant and highly competitive. Much of its continued success can be attributed to the entrepreneurial startups that flock to this industry in hope of success.

Every year FierceWireless editors evaluate dozens of the most innovative and smart emerging companies in the wireless industry. Our final selection--the top 15--are listed here as part of the FierceWireless' annual Fierce 15 list.

The winners this year are very diverse. A few are home to some of the best and brightest engineers who have developed interesting solutions to some of the most confounding wireless problems--like how to solve antenna interference issues in the handset or how to deliver better in-home coverage. Others are creative application firms that have come up with what we believe will be very compelling consumer services guaranteed to increase carrier ARPUs.

One thing all our Fierce 15 companies have in common is a bright executive team and the potential to advance the wireless industry. Here are the firms that we think will become great success stories. - Sue

Cequint Inc.

Where it's based: Seattle, Wash.
When it was founded: 2004
Website: www.cequint.com

Why it's Fierce: Cequint has embraced the philosophy that simple is better. The company created a software solution called City ID that provides consumers with the city and state associated with the exchange and area code of the incoming call. Since Caller ID doesn't exist in wireless, this is a very compelling feature for users.

The Caller ID application is installed on the handset by the device manufacturer, making it a fairly inexpensive application for operators because they don't have to do anything to their network or infrastructure. However, Cequint does have to convince handset makers to install the application on the device, something that is made easier once a carrier agrees to launch the application. So far Cequint has Alltel as a customer. Alltel started offering the service last May and in March the company announced City ID was available on more than 2 million Alltel phones. Alltel offers customers a free 15-day trial and when the trial expires the service is available for $1.99 per month.

Analysts are bullish on these types of simple applications that build customer loyalty and increase ARPU. Both Iain Gillott of iGR Research and Chetan Sharma have praised City ID for its ability to provide a simple application that customers are willing to use and pay for. iGR estimates that an operator with 30 million subscribers and a City ID penetration rate of 20 percent could generate additional revenues of $143 million.

What to look for: Look for Cequint to increase its reach by adding more handsets to its portfolio.

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