So much progress the past two decades, not to mention all the glitzy wireless stuff that debuted in Las Vegas last week. Yet the achievements-real and profound-tend to be overshadowed by lawsuits, industry infighting and consumer rage reported here and elsewhere.
The mobile-phone industry cannot get out its message any better than President Bush can on Iraq reconstruction. This is one matter in which Bush-who doesn’t share industry’s joy at hearing the ring of a cell phone-and mobile-phone carriers are on the same wave length.
The administration-but particularly the Pentagon-also has a lot in common with defrocked analysts on Wall Street who gained infamy by touting telecom and tech stocks in public while trashing them in private. Despite finally getting three mobile-phone licenses awarded in Iraq, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld now admits privately things aren’t going great and that we are in for “a long, hard slog” to get the war-battered country on its feet and win the war on global terrorism.
Still, Rummy, like outgoing CTIA President Tom Wheeler, can honestly say things are better today than they were yesterday on their respective fronts.
That reality, though, is not about to sway fickle popular opinion and competitive news organizations. The world is not like that. Controversy is news and makes for good copy. So do new product announcements, new carrier pricing plans and new industry initiatives to recycle old phones. We try to cover them all, making editorial judgements every day about the news value we feel should be attached to each. Admittedly it’s an inexact science.
Like the Bush administration, the mobile-phone industry must shoulder some blame for problems that has it at war with its U.S. subscriber base of 150 million.
But there is something else going on for which industry is not obliged to apologize.
The problem paradoxically begins at the very moment a consumer comes to believe he or she can cut the cord-discard the landline telephone in favor of a wireless device-and carry on all the better. That calculation-it’s happening by the millions-means more billable minutes for wireless carriers. What could be better for business?
There’s a catch, however. It’s all about expectations, about making calls or getting a ‘Net connection on a wireless gadget without interruption or security breach. The public doesn’t care about antenna-siting moratoria or local number portability implementation costs or the sometimes-fragile nature of radio propagation.
It’s about wanting all the advantages of mobility, without sacrificing the reliability of Ma Bell. And it’s about the wireless industry’s biggest challenge going forward.
