Cell Phone Info (An Industry in Entropy)

I would like to pass on some helpful observations and make the information as plain and to the point as I can. Over the last 15 years I have worked in various capacities in the telecommunications industry, mostly in wireless. I have seen customers go from one carrier to the next looking for an illusive level of satisfaction from wireless in the United States, only to bounce from carrier to carrier and end up where they started. I hope this will give anyone who reads it objective information to make an informed and quality decision on wireless service. This is not ubiquitous but a concise recommendation from my experience on the eve of my exit from the industry .

 

What carrier should you chose?

• Need Great Coverage, in US with Moderate travel to Europe, Asia, Africa & Mid East: Go with AT&T Mobility
  
• Wireless For business Connectivity with multiple services to fit business needs; Including Fastest and Largest Data network, National instant Walkie-Talkie, GPS, And Mobile Video and Radio; or need to talk to or go to Mexico: Go with SprintNextel
  
• Want Cool US coverage Phones with Music & Multimedia and good East Coast major City Coverage. Go with Verizon
  
• Do you want the Best Customer care with fewest billing issues and the most inexpensive rates with best minutes to dollar ration: Go with T-Mobile U.S.A.
  
• Do you live in a rural area and need good coverage locally and do not care much about national or international travel: Go with a rural regional provider like Alltel or US Cellular
  
• Live in a Medium to major city, are most likely 13 to 25, need unlimited talking and texting but call quality and coverage are not mission critical to life, neither is the ability to travel out of an approximate 55 mile range of your home town: Go with Metro PCS or Cricket
  

Now you may be saying that I want a carrier that will do all of this. Well most do, they just don't do it all well. If you go in with the understanding that you have to give up something you want to gain something you need (or really want), and get to a place of peace about that, your relationship with the carrier will be more enjoyable for you.

 

State of the Industry

    I just want to say a quick word about the wireless industry in the USA. The US and Japan deliver wireless service to the public different than most of the world. We have different frequencies and in some carriers case, different technology. Our business model is different. Rather than a true wireless operator model, we are more revenue generating models. To this end most of the big carriers are more focused on Wall-Street performance than in wireless performance and customer satisfaction. This is evident in how a consumer purchases a phone in the US. They get a free or cheep phone and sign a long (12 -36 month) contract. A Free phones actual MSRP is usually between $150 & $200. The Carrier Subsidizes that cost using the handset as a lost leader unit, then recovers the cost in revenue over the period of the contact. It is, in reality, less like a retail purchase and more like a 24 month signature loan from a financial institute that is publicly traded on the stock market. This benefits the carrier at the expense of the handset manufacture (who is selling the carrier and not the customer) and the consumer (who now is in a long term contract and has limited handset selection with most rate plans even between carriers, resembling each other).

 

 

So here is my 2 Cents

Here is my thesis on what the industry should evolve to, either voluntarily or via regulation. I would rather it come about via competition over customer care and wireless service rather than government intervention.

• Carriers should stop selling equipment
  
• Handset manufacturers and retail outlets should sell equipment directly to the public
  
• Carriers should move to a single technology. I suggest a SIM based WiMax service. On a side note European, Asian, Middle Eastern, African carries should also consider this.
  
• Open access should become a reality
  
• Specific, universal and standardized support for public sector first responders should be supported by ALL wireless carriers.
  
• Customers should be able to take there phone to any carrier
  
• No long term contracts. Nothing longer than 12 months
  
• Carriers compete on feature sets, Network coverage and call quality, Data speeds and customer care.
  
• Handset manufactures provide retail locations to sell and Repair their phones.
  
• Customers are willing to pay for the value of a handset instead of insisting on FREE or Cheap phones (you get what you pay for)
  

 

Well that is my two cents.

 

I hope you found this useful.

 

-Xion