Cell Phone Store Franchise Statistics: Census, SBA and Carrier Dealer Records

Cell phone store franchise registry: carrier programs and franchise brands in SBA records

The registry below lists every wireless carrier, prepaid-brand, electronics retail and phone repair program that appears in the SBA Franchise Directory dated 2026-10-15 or as a franchise code on SBA 7(a) and 504 loans in the SBA FOIA files as of 2026-06-30. Each entry shows the program as the SBA coded or listed it, its Directory status, and loan counts only.

All 7 carrier and prepaid-brand agreements in the 2026-10-15 Directory (Cricket Wireless, Metro by T-Mobile, MetroPCS, Verizon Wireless, an Ameritel T-Mobile operator agreement and Open Mobile in Puerto Rico) are marked N, meaning they do not meet the FTC definition of a franchise, according to the SBA Franchise Directory. The business-format brands in the same space (Wireless Zone, Batteries Plus, PayMore, CPR Cell Phone Repair and Techy) are marked Y.

SBA loans coded to carrier or prepaid-brand programs totaled 39 from FY2010 to FY2026 Q3 (14 since FY2020), according to SBA FOIA loan data. Wireless Zone, a franchisor whose older SBA loan codes read “Verizon Wireless Zone”, carried 46 coded loans on its own. For how the Directory works across all sectors, see the site’s SBA Franchise Directory research.

What NAICS 443142 covers, and where phone stores are classified

Most phone stores that sell carrier plans are not in the electronics-store code at all. The 2017 NAICS index places “Cellular telephone stores, primarily selling cellular phone service plans” and “Wireless phone stores, primarily selling wireless phone service plans” in 517312, Wireless Telecommunications Carriers, according to the Census 2017 NAICS index.

NAICS 443142, Electronics Stores, holds 18 index entries in 2017, including cellular telephone accessories stores, computer stores and consumer electronics stores (Census 2017 NAICS index). In NAICS 2012 and 2017 the code also absorbed three NAICS 2007 codes: 443112, 443120, 443130 (Census 2012-to-2007 concordance).

NAICS 2022 made the dealer model explicit. Code 517122 covers establishments acting as agents for wireless telecommunications carriers and resellers, selling wireless plans on a commission basis (Census 2022 NAICS descriptions), and its index entries include cellular and wireless phone stores selling plans on an agent basis (Census 2022 NAICS index). Electronics stores merged with appliance stores into 449210, built from all or part of 2017 codes 443141, 443142, 454110, 454390 (Census 2022-to-2017 concordance).

The Economic Census franchise file does not tabulate any wireless carrier or reseller code: its only sector 51 row is 511120 (periodical publishers only), according to the 2017 Economic Census franchise file. Franchise status for carrier-plan stores classified in 517312 is therefore not published.

Census franchised share of electronics stores, 2007 to 2017

Electronics stores (NAICS 443142) were among the most franchised retail industries in the 2017 Economic Census, but the result rests on a sharp one-census jump with thin response coverage. The 2017 file is the latest U.S. franchise tabulation: the 2022 release list shows a franchise table for Puerto Rico only (Census 2022 release list).

• In 2017, 10,992 of 23,078 U.S. electronics-store establishments (47.6%) were franchise units, according to the 2017 Economic Census.
• That share ranked No. 2 of 58 retail industries with at least 1,000 establishments in 2017, behind new car dealers (100.0%), and No. 7 of 241 industries of that size in all sectors (calculation from the 2017 Economic Census).
• In 2012 the share was 8.2% (3,336 of 40,521 establishments), ranking No. 18 of 62 retail industries (2012 Economic Census).
• In 2007 the three predecessor codes combined had a franchise share of 6.2% (2,576 of 41,467), according to the 2007 Economic Census.
• Franchise establishments rose 229.5% from 2012 to 2017 while all electronics-store establishments in the Census count fell 43.0% (calculation from the 2017 and 2012 files).

Two warnings apply. First, Census gives the 2017 franchise inquiry for this industry a coverage range code of 1, which the 2017 data dictionary defines as 10% to less than 20% of sales, against 46.0% in 2012. Second, the BLS QCEW counted 40,275 private electronics-store establishments in 2017, 17,197 more than the Economic Census, so the two frames disagree on the size of the industry in the same year.

Owner type and store size: franchisee-owned, franchisor-owned and independent

The 2017 franchise count is mostly stores owned by the brand company itself, not by franchisees. Of 10,992 franchise electronics stores in 2017, 9,908 (90.1%) were franchisor-owned and 1,084 were franchisee-owned, according to the 2017 Economic Census. Franchisee-owned stores were 4.7% of all electronics stores.

• The 90.1% franchisor-owned share ranked No. 1 of 33 retail industries with at least 500 franchise establishments in 2017 (calculation from the 2017 Economic Census).
• In 2012 the split ran the other way: 2,767 franchisee-owned and 569 franchisor-owned (17.1% franchisor-owned), per the 2012 Economic Census.
• A franchisee-owned electronics store averaged $1,381,930 in 2017 sales and 8.7 paid employees, against $3,473,053 and 12.0 for a non-franchise store, a sales ratio of 0.40 (calculation from the 2017 Economic Census).
• Franchisor-owned stores averaged $3,135,441 in sales and 11.7 employees in 2017.
• The franchisee-owned to non-franchise sales ratio was 0.44 in 2012 and 0.18 in 2007.

The non-franchise group includes large chain stores and every store that did not answer the franchise question, so the comparison describes the groups as Census counts them, not the earning power of any format. The file does not identify the companies behind the franchisor-owned count.

Firm-level view: few electronics retail firms operate as franchises

Counted by firm instead of by store, electronics retail is one of the less franchised parts of retail. The Annual Business Survey asks employer firms whether all or part of the business operated as a franchise.

• 1.6% of reporting electronics and appliance retail firms (NAICS 2022 4492) operated as a franchise in reference year 2023 (2024 ABS), standard error 0.5 points, against 8.5% of all retail firms and 4.7% of firms in all sectors (2024 ABS).
• Under the NAICS 2017 code (4431), the share was 7.3% in 2021 (2022 ABS, standard error 1.8), 5.3% in 2020 and 6.8% in 2019 (2022 ABS, 2021 ABS, 2020 ABS).
• The wired and wireless telecommunications group (NAICS 2022 5171, which includes resellers and agents for wireless carriers) reported 7.0% in 2023 and 10.3% in 2022 (2024 ABS, 2023 ABS).

Firm and store counts answer different questions. One company with thousands of stores is one ABS firm, so a high Census store share and a low ABS firm share can both be correct. The ABS does not split out agents for wireless carriers, and its labels follow the collection year: “The 2024 ABS covers reference year 2023” (ABS methodology).

SBA lending to cell phone and electronics stores, FY2010 to FY2026

SBA borrowers in phone and electronics retail use franchise codes less often than SBA borrowers in general. From FY2010 to FY2026 Q3, lenders approved 3,018 SBA 7(a) and 504 loans to businesses coded to electronics retail or wireless-service NAICS codes, and 192 (6.4%) carried a franchise code, according to SBA FOIA loan data. Across all SBA loans the coded share was 10.0%.

• Since FY2020 the sector share is 5.8% (60 of 1,026 loans), against 11.7% for all SBA loans (SBA FOIA loan data).
• Electronics retail NAICS alone: 158 coded of 2,213 loans (7.1%); wireless-service NAICS alone: 34 of 805 (4.2%).
• Carrier-program codes made up 16.1% of franchise-coded loans in these NAICS codes (31 loans); across all NAICS codes, 39 loans worth $24,275,200 carried a carrier-program code.
• Franchise-coded loans in the sector were more often startups: 34.4% against 5.5% of uncoded loans, with a median of $177,500 against $130,000.

The coding gap is visible in the totals. Across all SBA loans, the franchise-coded share was 13.6% for loans approved from October 2019 to 2023-05-10, 8.6% while the Directory was not published, and 13.2% after it returned on 2025-06-01 (SBA FOIA loan data). Treat FY2023 to FY2025 franchise counts as undercounts. Annual counts in this sector are small (FY2026 Q3: 99 loans), so single-year shares move a lot.

Authorized dealer vs business-format franchise under the FTC Rule

Whether a phone store agreement is a franchise depends on its terms, not its name. The FTC Franchise Rule covers an arrangement that has all three elements: trademark association; significant control or assistance; required payment to the franchisor or affiliate (16 CFR 436.1(h)).

• Buying inventory is not a franchise payment: the rule excludes payments for reasonable amounts of inventory at bona fide wholesale prices for resale (16 CFR 436.1(s)). Dealers that buy phones and accessories for resale may fall under that exclusion; whether they do depends on the payment terms.
• The rule does not apply if required payments in the first six months total less than $735 (16 CFR 436.8(a)(1), threshold amended 2024-07-12).
• The FTC’s compliance guide says the name of an arrangement is irrelevant to coverage, and that a supplier can avoid coverage by prohibiting the distributor from using its mark (FTC Franchise Rule Compliance Guide).
• The SBA lists brands that meet the FTC definition (which must be in the Directory to get SBA financing) and, on request, brands that do not (SBA Directory page). Of 3,498 listings on 2026-10-15, 1,009 (28.8%) were marked N (SBA Franchise Directory).

The carrier side of the market fits the dealer pattern in its own words. A Cricket dealer described itself as operating “as an authorized Cricket dealer, selling cellular phones and accessories, providing ancillary services and accepting service payments from customers” (Western Capital Resources 10-K, FY2017). The same model now has its own NAICS code, 517122, defined by commission-based plan sales (NAICS 2022). For the automotive version of this dealer question, see the site’s automotive franchise statistics.

Carrier store ownership mix in 10-K filings

The national carriers describe their sales channels but do not publish store counts split between company stores and dealers. Of the 4 FY2025 10-K filings reviewed (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, EchoStar), 0 state such a split.

• AT&T sells through company-owned stores, agents and third-party retail stores (AT&T 10-K, FY2025).
• Verizon describes company-operated stores (direct); agents at retail locations, mostly under exclusive selling arrangements (indirect) (Verizon 10-K, FY2025).
• T-Mobile reports owned and operated T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile stores; devices sold to dealers and third-party distributors (T-Mobile 10-K, FY2025); its FY2018 filing listed about 2,200 leased T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile retail locations (T-Mobile 10-K, FY2018).
• EchoStar (Boost Mobile) describes an indirect channel of third-party owned retail stores and big box stores; direct online channel (EchoStar 10-K, FY2025).

Counts appear on the dealer side instead. Spring Mobile, an AT&T authorized retailer owned by GameStop, operated 1,329 AT&T branded stores on 2018-02-03, down from 1,403 a year earlier (GameStop 10-K, fiscal 2017); GameStop sold that business, over 1,200 stores, in January 2019 (GameStop 10-K, fiscal 2018). Western Capital Resources operated 278 Cricket stores at the end of 2017 and 229 at the end of 2021, a 17.6% decline (FY2017 and FY2021 10-Ks). Both are dealer-side disclosures, not carrier totals.

FDDs for phone, repair and electronics franchises

Franchise Disclosure Documents exist for the business-format brands, not for carrier programs. The site’s Minnesota FDD sample holds three phone and device repair systems and no wireless retail franchisor; a fourth current FDD (PayMore) came from the California DFPI.

• Item 7 estimated initial investment ranges from $90,350 (low end, CPR Cell Phone Repair) to $468,150 (high end, uBreakiFix by Asurion) across the four 2026 FDDs.
• Initial franchise fees run from $15,000 (Techy) to $40,000 (uBreakiFix, plus a $12,500 training fee), according to each FDD’s Item 5.
• uBreakiFix by Asurion reported 549 franchised and 128 company or affiliate outlets at the end of 2025; CPR reported 418 franchised outlets; Techy 151; PayMore 99 (Item 20, Table 1 of each FDD).
• Wireless Zone, listed in the SBA Directory as meeting the FTC definition, filed a California notice of exemption for 2026 rather than a registration, so its DFPI record holds no FDD (DFPI record).

Three of the four FDDs include an Item 19 financial performance representation; this page does not report those figures. See the site’s Item 19 research and initial investment dataset for how to read them, and the franchise costs guide for the cost categories.

Does the cell phone store franchise angle hold?

Partly. The claim that electronics and phone stores are among the most franchised retail formats by share holds only for 2017 Census store counts (47.6%, No. 2 of 58 retail industries), and that count is 90.1% franchisor-owned with the lowest coverage range. It does not hold by firm (1.6% of electronics and appliance firms in 2023) or in SBA lending (6.4% coded).

The second half of the claim, that the franchising runs mostly through carrier dealer and prepaid-brand programs, cannot be shown with Census data, because phone stores selling plans sit in a NAICS code the franchise file does not cover. The records that do exist point the other way: the SBA marks every listed carrier agreement as outside the FTC definition, and carrier-coded loans (39) are outnumbered by loans to electronics retail and repair franchises (301 and 108). The data support a narrower finding: carrier stores run on dealer and agent agreements that federal records do not count as franchises, while the measurable franchise layer is repair, used-electronics and battery brands plus one franchisor, Wireless Zone, whose older SBA codes carry a carrier name. For the wider franchise-versus-independent picture, see franchise vs independent business.

Update log

• 2026-10-18: first edition. Sources checked: SBA FOIA files as of 2026-06-30, SBA Franchise Directory of 2026-10-15, FY2025 10-K filings, 2026 FDDs, Annual Business Survey reference years 2019 to 2023, Economic Census 2007, 2012 and 2017.
• Next check: the SBA FOIA file as of 2026-09-30 (SBA posts quarterly files about one month after quarter end), the next weekly Directory files, and the Census release of the 2024 Annual Business Survey listed for 2026-12-03.