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

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

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

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

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