April 3, 2007 by Roger Entner.

Every year when it’s getting colder we all start pulling out our Santa Claus wish lists. My five year old son John’s list is especially large because all year long when we go to a toy store and he wants something instead of telling him “No” I tell him to put it on the List for Santa. It works great but his memory is getting better and better. My list for the Wireless Santa is much shorter than his, but I hope he does not forget what I want either. Maybe if I am good next year (oh, I can wish, now can’t I?) Santa will grant me some of my wishes:

My first wish is a basic phone for seniors. I see how my 72 year old mother is struggling with phones that my five year old is having no problem handling. Unfortunately, the wireless industry and senior citizens are increasingly drifting apart, which is even more tragic because the senior segment is the least penetrated segment left in the population. The older you get the more your eye sight, hearing, and manual dexterity diminishes; at the same time wireless phones are becoming smaller and smaller and increasingly loaded with functionality. As much as I love the added power in a smaller unit I recognize that not everyone shares my enthusiasm. A lot of people would just like to have a basic phone that makes calls really well without all the additions like cameras, music players, etc. Larger buttons, larger letters, and better speakers in a since size form factor would do the job. As Le Corbusier once famously said “Less is more.”

Edit: A few days afterwards I was informed that there was a senior-centric MVNO called Jitterbug that would make my wish come true. www.jitterbug.com

My second wish would be cross-carrier consistency. I understand the need for differentiation and supposed stickiness of applications, but why turn this into a combination of the Tower of Babel and a massive pain in the neck. My favorite pet peeve right now is “ring back tones.” Oh wait, aren’t they Callback Tones, or Answer Tones, or whatever concoction someone utterly bored at a wireless carrier or branding firm has come up with. Is it messaging, texting, SMS? While it is part of the beauty of a language to be able to say the same thing in many different ways, it confuses the heck out of customers wanting to buy something. If everyone uses the same name service adoption levels might very well increase because of the cross carrier halo effect. The same applies to things like voicemail menus. Virtually every voicemail provider has a different menu structure which filters through to the carrier. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, then it could be a Drake or a Hen? Maybe CTIA could bring some cross-carrier consistency that would benefit consumers over all and I don’t think someone will be more or less likely churning just because the voicemail menu structure is identical across the industry.

My third wish would be clear marketing messages. In my opinion just marketing messaging and especially tag lines have to answer the “So What?” question right away. The better the “so what” question is answered and the more it rings true with customers, the more powerful the message. I understand “It’s the Network”; I understand “Least dropped calls”; I understand “Nextel Done” – unfortunately in more than one way; I understand “Get more for less”. Where I am starting to lose it is “most powerful network” and “stick together.” One gives me the impression of getting jolted by my phone and the other reminds me of overcooked rice.

My fourth wish is stuff that actually works as expected. Welcome back to the basics. When I did a informal poll among my friends who are not connected to the wireless industry and I asked them what they wanted from their Wireless Santa the response was in unison “Less dropped calls and better coverage.” After these decades of wireless service, the industry is still sorely lagging behind customer expectations. It’s partly the industry’s fault by letting expectations race ahead of the ability to deliver, combined with the fact that there are still local zoning boards that in blatant violation of federal law are delaying or even blocking the building of cell sites.
With ever more capable connected devices it becomes ever more difficult to get the thing to work. For example, the handset manufacturers and wireless carriers across the board have done a good job in delivering a usable music software on the handset. The moment the phone is connected to the PC all hell breaks loose. Some are integrated very well, some offer a bare bone utilitarian approach, and others I am still struggling to get to work and when the PC software upgraded everything went FUBAR (you sure you want to use FUBAR? – how about “haywire”.

My fifth wish is less hype, especially from the WiMAX crowd. The more waves one has to make, the less substance there is. Making unrealistic claims may impress lay people, but make you lose all credibility. Nobody is going to repeal the laws of nature (and some claims certainly require that), and if you do please concentrate on feeding the hungry and bringing world peace – it’s a worthwhile goal. Just be able to deliver on what you promise. Also while we are at it, could we stop the religious wars about technology in general? We have been good for a while but things have been heating up again in 2006. These wars are about as senseless and silly as it gets.

My sixth wish is a TV reality series with wireless executives as main characters. The two most despised professions in America are lawyers and doctors – and look what’s on TV. Shows about lawyers and doctors. About time that the mediocre reputation of the industry translates into some prime time TV show.

But in closing what I would like most is peace, health and happiness to all of you and your families. May Santa make all your wishes and dreams come true.

This article first appeared in its original form in RCR Wireless News on December 11, 2006.

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April 3, 2007 by Roger Entner.

One of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, famously said that the man that trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. Up until a few days ago, I did not know that his observation also applied to cell phones.
Lawmakers in four states, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Michigan have introduced legislation and another lawmaker in Pennsylvania and on Capitol Hill are rumored to currently write a bill that would require identification when purchasing a prepaid cell phone. To make it even better, we have actually two lawmakers in Georgia that have introduced competing bills covering the topic. More than two years after the Madrid Bombings that claimed the lives of 191 people and the 2002 Bali Bombings that claimed the lives of 202 people, the first bills get intoduced that target the prepaid phones that have been used as triggering devices for the bomb detonators. While it is important to protect people from terrorist activities, requiring ID to buy a prepaid cell phone is at best a hollow gesture as long as minors can get fake IDs and can actually buy alcohol with it. The sponsors of these bills have claimed that the arrests of people associated with purchasing dozens of phones in connection with terrorism would justify these bills. The problem is that none of the people that purchased these phones have anything to do with terrorism as law enforcement had to admit after the first sensationalized reports. This type of fall out from misinformation and hysteria is, to word it politely, very unfortunate. I really want to believe that these lawmakers introduce these bills out of concern for their electorate rather than in a dash for publicity. The add-on justification claims that it prevents criminals from buying dozens of phones to use for their illegal activities. Hmm, roving wiretaps are being praised by police for already achieving that goal, and please remember showing ID does not prevent anything, it just helps finding and convicting the perpetrators faster. While cell phones are targeted, nobody has come up with the idea requiring ID from people who buy boxcutters, which were the weapons the 9/11 terrorists were using. Soon we will be required to show ID for buying everything because it could be used as an assessory to a violent crime. Where does it end? The most recent warning (or shall I say hoax?) I read was that criminals are using cameral cell phones to take a picture of your credit card when you hand it over in restaurants and stores… Oooh! Scary camera phones! I guess the good old paper and pen is out of fashion for thieves now. Lets all outlaw camera phones, and while we are at it real cameras too!
What is worse than the pointless hassle of providing ID when purchasing a cell phone is the negative impact on the poorest members of society. At approximately 75% wireless penetration only people who are too young or cannot pass a credit check do not have a cell phone. That is if we ignore technophobes, prison inmates, people who are institutionalized or in a coma and others who after 20 years of relentless marketing barrage by the carriers still do not see the benefits of a wireless phone… While a portion of prepaid wireless users are using wireless this way out of choice, but the vast majority use prepaid out of necessity because they do not qualify for postpaid. Advocates of prepaid phone ID checks simply point at postpaid subscriber activations where ID checking is customary. The huge difference is that these ID checks are doing in conjunction with a credit check to avoid fraud, not to prevent terrorism. Prepaid providers are operating with razor sharp profit margins to provide these services to the poorest Americans. Tracfone, the largest prepaid only carrier and 6th largest carrier overall in the United States with 7 million customers and an ARPU of $13 (national average is about $50) has merely an EBIT profit margin of 2.9% for the first six months of 2006. That’s 37 cents of gross profit per month per customer. The comparison figure for postpaid is around $23 per month. How one can require ID checking without raising rates for the people who can least afford it and remain profitable is difficult understand, especially for such a futile measure.
I am all in favor of introducing real measures that protect Americans from terrorism, but these bills are just not it. Even worse, bills like this are much harder to get off the books than on the books, just like the Federal Exise Tax which was instituted to fund the Spanish-American War in 1898 and ultimately repealed 108 years later.

This article first appeared in RCR Wireless News on October 17, 2006

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