At the end of 2004, Dobson Communications was faced with rising customer defections (churn), decreasing loyalty and a shrinking subscriber base. Year over year attrition had increased and the outlook for 2005 and beyond appeared to be the same or worse. Competition since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 made it even easier for Dobson subscribers to switch to its competitors which, in most cases were larger wireless carriers. To make matters worse, Dobson knew it needed to upgrade its existing network from the TDMA standard to the newer, more robust, GSM standard. With increasing market pressure on their public stock, Dobson management decided to engage AnswerOn for assistance.