Blog: John Myers

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May 31, 2007

Best Arizona High School Hockey Player

With all due respect for Wayne Gretzy's kids, I have always used the phrase "Best High School Hockey Player in the State of Arizona" to describe someone or something that was the best of a "not spectacular" group. Well, I found just such a situation with the recently released American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

It appears that Verizon came out at the top in customer satisfaction in the wireless and fixed telecommunication categories. However, "at the top" should be taken with a grain of salt. All telecommunications service providers ranked well below the overall average of all industries ranked by the ACSI. Quite literally, Verizon is the best of a bad lot. And the trends are not heading the right direction.

Perhaps all telecom service providers should look at the enabling their employees to make the best of their customer interactions. Here is an interesting look at how that might be accomplished.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Customer Satisfaction, ACSI

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May 30, 2007

Where Wireless Dreams Come True?

Having just returned from Walt Disney World, I was surprised that I did not see this interesting "treasure hunt" associated with the premiere of Pirates of Caribbean 3. However, I was highly impressed with the "open-ness" of the Disney offer/idea.

It focused not on a Disney Mobile wireless device, but on a third party's gaming console. Naturally, the promotion focused on a Disney movie ( some might say an over-hyped disney movie.... ) and the Walt Disney theme parks. But, it shows a great deal of imagination on Disney's side.

The next question that I have is exactly how soon until the "premium" version is only available on Disney Mobile and how well it is beamed into the brains... err... communicated via the Disney "machine" to my 3 year old daughter... :)

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Wireless Integration, Wireless Integration, Walt Disney World, Pirates of the Caribbean

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May 29, 2007

Net Neutrality Consumer Costs

I recently found an interesting study from Stephen Pociask about proposed Net Neutrality regulations. It claims a total of $69b in "costs" to the consumer if Net Neutrality regulations are put in place. An initial reading found the study to be informative and well supported ( note - i agree with the position in the paper and i'm decidedly a non-net neutrality person... )

However, after doing a little research for some critics of the sponsors of the study, I found a response that was basically follows the "Crossfire" mentality.

It is unfortunate that those for Net Neutrality depend just a little too much on hyperbole ( ie a vote against Net Neutrality is vote against Free Speech ) rather than supporting their argument with the appropriate information to change the minds of those who might be undecided.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Net Neutrality, Costs, Stephen Pociask

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May 24, 2007

Hockey Stick Performance Too Much?

In a recent article, Janamitra Devan, Matthew Klusas, and Timothy Ruefli looked at the attributes of superior performing companies. 1) They determined that those firms are few and far between. 2) They determined that these firms did not venture far outside of their core competencies and internal growth capabilities.

This study could be a message to all those "free wheeling", merger and acquisition telecom CEOs out there who view diversification and inorganic growth to be the key of superior performance.... The numbers do not support those activities. However, they do support knowing the core competencies of a company and driving well toward those strengths.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Core Competency, Superior Performance, Organic Growth, Janamitra Devan, Matthew Klusas, Timothy Ruefli

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May 22, 2007

Checking those Ts and Cs

Before you think that you can turn your Verizon phone into a version of a broadband access card, you might want to review your terms and conditions in terms of "unlimited usage". It seems that "unlimited" is more like "all you should eat" and not "all you can eat" (with the should being defined by Verizon...).

While I do not disagree that Verizon should be able to limit those that they feel are abusing the "unlimited" data plan, I do think that they should re-adjust their definition of "unlimited" rather than claim that unlimited is up to 5gb per month. Particularly with video downloads becoming more prevalent and the fact that other providers (see Cingular...err... AT&T Mobility) may follow suit.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Wireless Data Usage, Unlimited, Verizon

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May 21, 2007

Good News; Bad News; Worse News

The Good News is that wireless subscribers in the UK are using more data services than traditional voice services. The Bad News is that those wireless users in the UK, so very similar to their US brothers and sisters, are using text messages to replace those traditional voice calls and not the more lucrative mobile internet services that most providers would like them to.... The posting talks about how that usage has translated into lower average revenue per user (ARPU) on both post-paid and pre-paid accounts.

The Worse News is that most UK wireless users are actively considering a switch of provider. While this is probably not a surprise to those experiencing poor service from any wireless provider, it is a surprise to see so many, presumably non disgruntled ( gruntled...??? :) ) users considering churning from one provider to the next.... A very fertile environment for marketers, but a poor environment for what it will take to keep those subscribers from moving.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Voice Usage, Text Message Usage, ARPU, Churn

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May 18, 2007

Drivers for New Services

In a recent survey, it was observed that many telecom service providers do not have the ability to introduce new services in a timeframe that will allow for them to capitalize on the emerging trends that products are based.

It will be interesting to see how telecom service providers view this challenge. Something to be passively managed by their change control process (ie 6-9 months) or something to be proactively lead by introducing new billing and operational support systems (B/OSS).

NOTE - For my money, it will take a market leading organization to show the value of properly implementing and supporting those new services to get the legacy telecom service providers to move in the right direction...

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, New Services

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May 17, 2007

Learning from the Past

Whereof what’s past is prologue

The Bard's words of wisdom are always fun to bring up. However based on a recent survey of technology users, it appears that it is a false assumption to think that all who have access to mobile Internet services use those services and in particular the paid services associated with mobile Internet.

This appears to be a VERY similar situation to those heady days of yester-year... ok.... 1999 where Internet business plans were based on being able to sell to everyone connected to the Internet and not those actually using the Internet for commerce. I would advise that before mobile Internet service business models (ie location based services, mobile advertisements, etc) are based on overly optimistic hockey stick projections, they those responsible for those projections take a history lesson from the 1990's Internet bubble.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Mobile Internet Services, Location Based Services, Mobile Advertisements

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May 16, 2007

Internal Controls vs Self Control(s)

In a recent survey, it was reported that 75% of US and international firms were planning on spending more in relational to internal controls. For US-based firms, this may be attributed to Sarbanes-Oxley constraints and the overall risk management market. For international firms, this probably is a direct result of either Enron type bad press or the appeal of easing the process of being acquired by a US-based firm.

Looking at the information in the survey, one might come to the realization that using a consulting firm (heck.. they sponsored the survey) is the best way to go with this additional investment in internal controls. However, I would ask if these investments were in relatively new and undocumented areas or well documented and previously SOX compliant/audited areas?

If they are new internal controls, I firmly believe that "another set of eyes" is a good way to go (ie bring on some consultants). But, if these are well documented areas, I would recommend taking that professional services investment and replacing it with standardized processes and applications like BAM.

Technorati Tags: Business Activity Monitoring, BAM, Internal Controls, Consultants

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May 15, 2007

Not Just Sheep

In a recent article, Richard Martin and Elena Malykhina tell of how wireless service providers may, and probably will, soon face both business and retail consumers who will want to break the "walled garden" approach that many providers are using regarding mobile features and services. And I agree with them....

This is the fine line that wireless providers walk with their wares. They want to be the value-added provider to both business and retail consumers, but they do not want to simply become the connectivity provider to those consumers. However, there will soon be a day when the value of connectivity and productivity will outweigh the handset subsidies that wireless providers use to acquire/keep customers.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Handset Subsidies, Richard Martin, Elena Malykhina, Walled Garden

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May 14, 2007

Talking Smack at the Cable Show....

I found a lot of humor in a posting from Michael Harris at the Cable Show in Las Vegas last week. The quotes from the cable industry reminded me of college kids talking smack at a home game with 60-70k similarly clad fans backing them up.

Most of the humor that I found was from the fact that AT the CABLE show, the Cable Industry was boasting loudly about the future of the CABLE based DOCSIS 3.0 format vs the efforts from telcos like Verizon and AT&T. While I like the boasting ( ...and i'm all for people, companies, industries being loud and proud of their products/services/interests.... ), I am a little concerned that it takes places in a cable friendly environment. I want to see that type of talk at a general telecommunications service provider show and/or in the general telecommunication press. Hopefully, I will see quotes similar to that when other industy execs can/will fire back ( ie at a road game or at a neutral field... )

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Cable, DOCSIS, Cable Show, Michael Harris

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May 10, 2007

Best Mover Advantage

I found an interesting posting today. It is a side note about how Blizzard, creator of World of Warcraft (WOW), was looking for mobile gaming professionals to develop new games.

While just about all 'gaming' companies are looking for mobile gaming professionals, the fact that Blizzard is starting to move in that direction means that mobile gaming will soon reach a level of quality it has not seen before. Blizzard is not a first mover in the gaming areas that they choose to enter. However, Blizzard creates some of the best games for those areas. Quality, "smarts", etc... It definitely will not be Tetris on your phone.

However, with Blizzard's quality, comes a "no wine before its time" mentality.... It could be quite a while before that Blizzard mobile game comes out... :) However, I am sure that the 8.5 million users of World of Warcraft will be waiting with baited breath for the release. If not bring their mobile/wireless business with them to the "official" Blizzard wireless provider (ala Cingular ...errr... the new AT&T for the iPhone)... or at the very least significantly boost their non-messaging data usage with their wireless providers of choice.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Blizzard, mobile gaming, World of Warcraft

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May 8, 2007

Cablevision Going Private

It is great to be back from vacation! Thanks for your patience.

While I was out, the Dolan family was finally successful in their attempts to take Cablevision private. While this only impacts a relatively small cable operator in New York (kind of like describing the yankees as a relatively small baseball organization in new york... :) ), it shows a trend in telecom service providers about moving from the "spotlight" of Wall Street scrutiny to the relatively "free" and entrepreneurial atmosphere of being a private company.

I have no doubt that some day the appeal of the equity markets will someday lure Cablevision and Cox Communication back to Wall Street. However, in the mean time, I find it heartening that the leadership of these firms has decided to take control of their companies from the analysts and their quarterly expectations. Managing a brand, a product, a company is much more appealing and rewarding than managing those expectations.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, Cablevision, Cable, Dolan, Private Company

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