When did the universe get so topsy-turvy?
(I’d venture to guess right around the time the Dow hit 8,000 for the first time?)
The stock market rules.
Global Crossing Ltd.-an unknown telecom venture by most accounts-can make a bid for Baby Bell U S West Inc., and U S West can accept, because the stock market is high. WorldCom did in fact buy the more-established MCI, not the other way around.
And the high stock market helped NextWave Telecom Inc. recently receive a favorable ruling in bankruptcy court, effectively giving this PCS player a way to still try to become a carrier’s carrier of wireless communications.
NextWave has been one of the few companies to embrace a resale strategy, so we may get to watch what actually happens on a large scale when a wireless carrier lets go of access to the customer.
The resale business is looking good, according to Ernest Kelly, president of the Telecommunications Resellers Association. Not only are CLECs and international resellers joining the organization, but companies planning to resell Internet access and IP telephony are coming into the fold.
But in the middle of all this rapid craziness to increased competition, what role will customer loyalty play?
I tell you what, I’m ready to try my first 10-10 number to place a long-distance call. And will I go back to my carrier after that? Maybe not. I finally switched long-distance carriers for the first time for 5,000 frequent flier miles. And I’ll switch again for more frequent flier miles.
Do I care that my new phone bills are going to say Global Crossing? Will I stay loyal to a company that has spent lots of money convincing me “Life’s better here” (in U S West country) now that its headquarters is in Bermuda?
Or by the time the deal is cemented and new marketing campaigns begun, will an alternative carrier try to offer me residential phone service?
Alongside the lawyers who get rich putting together these mammoth mergers will be the brilliant branding strategists, who can charge umpteen thousand dollars for painting an apple green circle and calling it a logo simply because it works.
