Carphone Warehouse Takes on the US

UK high street mobile retail group Carphone Warehouse has today officially launched its assault on the US market. The company, which has partnered with US electronics retailer Best Buy, said it would take on the American market with a "rapid roll-out" of shops.

The British phone group said it plans to set up between 150 and 200 stores on the far side of the Atlantic. The majority of these will be shops-within-shops located within existing Best Buy locations. The two companies first agreed to the partnership back in September 2006, since then they have operated a trial in selected stores stateside. Carphone today reported that those trials said had delivered "encouraging results".

At the same time as announcing its move overseas into the US market, Carphone reported that it is aiming to sign up 3.5 million residential broadband customers in the UK by March 2010. The company currently has around 2.27 million broadband customers. It believes that its growth prospects have been boosted as more customers move onto unbundled lines, which allows the company to supply them directly rather than using the existing BT lines.

Carphone makes an estimated loss of £5 per customer per month while they get their broadband service through wholesale products from BT.