Worst of the Week: Has the whole world gone mad?

Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Domestic wireless carriers have over the past several weeks been operating in a state of flux reaching capacitor levels. It seems not one day has gone by where one operator is not launching some new, cut-rate offering, taunting their rivals or completely overhauling their corporate structure.
What the deuce?!?
Aren’t we supposed to be in the “dog days” of summer where nothing happens because everyone is on vacation, packing up their kids to send them back to school or simply can’t move because they are melted to the tarmac? It’s August people! What happened to treating the month with the dignity it deserves?
Not that this isn’t good fun, but if I was a typical consumer, this level of upheaval would have my head spinning. (What am I saying? I am not a typical wireless consumer and my head is spinning.) With the month now just about over, this seems as good a time as any to take stock of exactly what happened and where we stand today.
First, I would be remiss if I did not again note the change of leadership at Sprint, which seemed to have been the spark that set the month ablaze. With that move, and subsequent claims from Sprint and Softbank that it was no longer interested in acquiring T-Mobile US (at this time) and would instead aggressively target pricing, the stage was set for drama.
Sprint’s moves included ditching its incredibly complicated “Framily” mumbo-jumbo in favor of an easier-to-understand (though not completely transparent) family plan offering that offered up buckets of data similar to what competitors have been pushing for a few years. However, Sprint did manage to bungle this plan with a number of limited-time “promotional” caveats that seemed destined to add to consumer confusion as well as to the amount of small print. Some people never learn.
Never one to back down from a pricing challenge (or a Twitter rant), T-Mobile US seemed to take Sprint’s moves as an affront to its “un-carrier-ness” and threw out a bunch of changes of its own. Unfortunately, some of these also included a bunch of small-print caveats that would seem to be more a “carrier” move. “Throttling” of “unlimited” data customers? Offers of “unlimited” data for a limited time? There is nothing consumers like more than having something they thought they were signing up for not really being what they signed up for.
And, let’s not forget T-Mobile US’ German parents, who can’t seem to figure out what to do with its U.S. operations. Is T-Mobile US for sale or not? There is nothing more crippling to a carrier’s competitive efforts than underlying uncertainty as to where next week’s paychecks might be coming from.
AT&T has not let grass grow under its feet, using its Cricket proxy to target T-Mobile US, while late this week also throwing cash on the hood for anyone looking to join its club. (Mmmmmm, cash.)
AT&T also did its part in keeping the business card industry busy, deciding to reconfigure its “business” structure by lumping together wireless and enterprise into a new super-group headed by long-time exec Ralph de la Vega. While not as exciting as price wars or wholesale management changes, the move did seem to draw considerable attention, which is always nice.
Heck, even Verizon Wireless got in on the August fun, throwing out a promotional single-line rate plan, which, while not incendiary, did at least show that it was not too busy patting itself on the back. However, the next few weeks could be fun for the carrier as it begins to roll out VoLTE services, which should draw considerable scrutiny.
Again, this is August people! What happened to keeping some of your powder dry so you could spring some surprises ahead of the holiday season? Has everyone gone mad?
I guess the one good thing about carriers (hopefully) getting their yaw-yaws out in August is that it will leave September free to deal with a pair of industry trade shows (CCA and CTIA … Super Mobility Week!) and what are set to be some significant device launches (Apple, Samsung). So we all have that sort of fun to look forward to.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
—I think we can all agree that Sprint has been pretty active over the past couple of weeks, but the carrier’s latest bit of news, I would argue, trumps all that has come before.
The carrier this week announced it has added the option of using avatars with its visual voicemail service. That’s right … avatars. Let the ramifications of that sink in. Better yet, watch this awesome video. (Warning: don’t expect blue aliens.)
Nothing says a company is set to revolutionize its industry like rolling out cartoon animals that mime the content of a voicemail, which I am guessing is a voicemail because you did not want to speak to that person directly. Unfortunately, the service currently is only available to customers with Android-powered devices, which means there is finally something iPhone users can now be jealous of.
—And, because it has been too long since I have typed the word “Canada,” Motorola Solutions announced a deal with Canadian sports bar chain … wait for it … La Cage aux Sports Bar and Restaurant to deploy a mobile ordering system. The platform consists of a tablet-like device carried by servers that allows them to input orders directly from a table. Or, you know, that technology that has been available to the rest of the world for a decade. Ah, Canada.
Care to take a trip back in time? Check out the accompanying video:
http://youtu.be/gk-cz7cxids
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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