Wireless reality

It’s getting very noisy in the wireless industry. Carriers are practically shouting their wares on TV, radio, the Internet and in newspapers. Indeed, an article in Advertising Age, an RCR Wireless News sister newspaper, estimates the nationwide wireless carriers spend $1 billion on advertising efforts in a year.
For the most part, I am impressed with the buzz because wireless operators are starting to educate their subscribers about all of the cool things they can do with their devices. Yes, the network-quality and my-network campaigns continue, but these new efforts promise to explain the possibilities of the cellphone to the masses.
Educating the consumer and business worker about all of the benefits of a 3G network (or in T-Mobile USA’s case, the nifty things one can do on a 2.5G network) has been talked about for years-and everyone inside the industry agreed consumers needed to be educated-but only now is that effort starting to become reality.
T-Mobile USA has a fun TV commercial using its Sidekick device to connect young adults going about their daily routines with a time, a location and a bunch of cans of Silly String. The ad not only promotes the Sidekick and the service, it demonstrates to the audience what “flash mobs” are in a fun, entertaining way.
Verizon Wireless is also educating users about mobile music applications with its song ID service. But the carrier could take that effort to a whole new level with its latest strategy. Sprint Nextel has done a fine job of showing business users what they can do with wireless technology, and I expect to see AT&T Mobility become more aggressive once its releases the iPhone and gets done with its rebranding business.
Verizon Wireless, obviously miffed it missed out on AT&T Mobility’s American Idol success, is a premiere sponsor for “On the Lot.” The TV show, from Steven Spielberg and Survivor’s Mark Burnett, essentially is a reality TV film-making competition. As a lead sponsor, Verizon Wireless’ applications likely will be integrated into the TV series itself, along with the more traditional text-to-vote apps and the like.
And people still question whether wireless carriers will ever become dumb pipes?