Alltel Wireless will begin marketing its products through Best Buy locations throughout its footprint. The new retail strategy will begin May 25th. Alltel expects to be in about 40 Best Buy locations. Alltel will initially feature specific handsets, including the BlackBerry Curve and Motorola’s RAZR and ROKR, before implementing more handsets later in the year.

Verizon Wireless announced a renewed retail effort with the introduction of a new “evolutionary” store design and experience. The enhanced retail strategy has already made it to 100 retail stores, and will soon follow with an additional 180 outlets. The new store design focuses on creating an “experience” with hands on demos of both Verizon Wireless technology and devices, and where appropriate, Verizon FiOS and other landline broadband technology. Some of the new store features include:

• A dedicated demo zone where customers can explore, experiment and learn using interactive touch-screens
• More than 55 working models of handsets, PC cards and other devices for customers to try
• A bill payment kiosk

AT&T is following a similar strategy with their retail outlets. The strategy goes well beyond wireless sales. Both Verizon and AT&T are trying to leverage their significant retail footprint for cross selling of all communications products and services – wireless and wireline. If executed well, it could prove to provide an advantage over cable and DBS competitors who lack company owned and operated retail stores. A key metric to observe over the coming months and years is how many quad play customers Verizon and AT&T manage to convert from their retail footprint. They have a distinct advantage in trying to upsell landline broadband and video offerings to the thousands of wireless customers, many of whom are current customers of cable and DBS competitors, who visit these stores everyday. Of course execution is key. Having the ability to upsell those landline services and effectively selling them in a retail environment are two separate things. Wireless retail stores haven’t exactly been bastions of great customer service and efficiency. Staffing those stores with the proper mix of product specialists who can cross sell will be challenging, not to mention ensuring there is an efficient service order and provisioning process. It will be worth watching.

Verizon has struck a deal with Jordan's Furniture, a Massachusetts furniture retailer, to market Verizon FiOS packages in Jordan's retail stores. Under the arrangement, Verizon will build a “Verizon Lifestyle” store within the Jordan's Furniture store in Reading, Mass. The Verizon store will feature FiOS voice, Internet and TV services. Other Jordans retail locations will feature a Verizon FiOS kiosk. Verizon will also bought naming rights to Jordan's two IMAX Theaters, in Reading and Natick, Mass, and the company's Motion Odyssey Movie Theater in Avon, Mass. "Verizon and Jordan's win because of the multitude of on-site and on-screen opportunities that are available for cross-promotion. However, most importantly, the customers win because of the additional products now available under one roof. Customers will be able to literally experience Verizon technology, all in the comfort of the furniture showrooms of Jordan's," says Eliot Tatelman, president and chief operating officer of Jordan's. It’s another example of telecom and cable service providers extending their retail strategy beyond their own company stores.

BlackBerry opened its first retail store, in partnership with Wireless Giant, a Michigan based wireless retailer. The store, located in suburban Detroit, will sell BlackBerry phones, accessories, and wireless subscriptions to all major carriers. It’s a first for BlackBerry, who joins other wireless device makers with retail experiments, including Nokia. Retail of wireless devices, independent of the underlying carrier, also is happening with Apple’s iPhone. These are leading indicators of what will be commonplace in the wireless industry’s future – “carrierless” retail sales of devices

As open networks grow, where customers can bring their own device, expect to see an explosion in wireless device availability, including stand alone branded stores. Wireless devices will soon be available for purchase in much the same way we buy other consumer electronic devices today, including PCs and televisions. It remains to be seen how this shift in buying behavior will affect wireless carrier business models and their competitive positioning. Devices are heavily subsidized today, but in an open world, subsidies will surely decline. Apple proved that consumers will pay full price for the right wireless device.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that AT&T opened its first AT&T Experience Store in Atlanta, GA last month. The retail outlet sells everything AT&T offers from traditional landlines to wireless to U-Verse. Shoppers are offered kiosks or stations to ‘experience’ the many different products and services available to them. AT&T has other similar locations in Texas, and plans to convert many of its 2,000+ wireless retail locations to these broader experience stores. It’s an attempt to leverage their retail footprint for competitive advantage over cable.

But not so fast. The cable industry has a retail strategy of their own, and are well on their way in executing it. The recent FCC mandate for retail distribution of cable set top boxes has quickened the cable move to retail. Cable’s strategy includes partnering with national electronics retailers like Circuit City for presence in their existing stores, as well as developing cable specific retail stores with them. These respective retail strategies are taking us to a point where consumers will soon be able to experience, buy, and arrange installation of their complete communications and entertainment portfolio, including voice, video, data, and wireless in one location. For the time being, I give the advantage to cable. Their larger presence in consumer electronics retail locations allows them to leverage impulse buying among consumers who are purchasing equipment like HDTVs and DVRs. A properly executed retail strategy will bundle the services necessary to take advantage of that high performing entertainment and networking equipment.