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:
RootMetrics this week released its latest carrier network performance rankings metric with results that surprised few, but did provide enough information to start a Twitter battle between Sprint and T-Mobile US, more specifically their respective CEO’s Marcelo Claure and John Legere.
Claure initiated the “feud” by highlighting Sprint’s tied-for-second-place performance in one category that also happened to be the category in which T-Mobile US placed fourth out of the four nationwide operators. (It should be noted that the category was “call performance,” which I am guessing is only relevant for mobile users over the age of 40.)
Legere, of course no stranger to Twitter, swung back with a slew of comments putting down RootMetrics’ testing methods, randomly stating that Sprint still came in fourth in some aspect of the study that it had just denigrated, and then mocking Claure for not being original. All pretty good stuff, if not for any of its accuracy, at least in terms of entertainment value.
Even better was the response from Verizon Wireless, which came out on top in the survey and produced a professional looking video both touting its success and taking a nice dig at its “noisy” rivals. Sure, 160-character potshots are pretty sweet, but a professionally done video taking potshots at rivals is that much sweeter.
While I do indeed enjoy these social media battles, I think everyone would be much better served if Claure and Legere would show up on the same stage at some industry trade event and provide a real-life angle to this battle between millionaires.
I know industry trade group CTIA used to manage to pull off keynote sessions at its events that included all four carrier CEOs, which provided for great photo ops when former Sprint CEO Dan Hesse would tower over his fellow chiefs resplendent in his Vans footwear. But, it looks like at least for now there are no events on the schedule with both Claure and Legere on the same docket.
I do give Claure some credit for at least showing up at these somewhat neutral stages, while Legere seems content to only show up when T-Mobile US is putting on the event.
Come on guys. Do the industry a solid here and get together in the same cage … I mean on the same stage. Why limit yourself to poking fun from afar. Let’s make this rivalry real.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. Here is a quick, but satisfying extra:
– If you are to believe recent headlines, wireless consumers here in the U.S. are finally being unshackled from that heavy burden of “contracts” forced upon them from wireless carriers. Finally!
Sprint this week was the latest to hint that it is going to do away with contracts that tie an upfront subsidy on the price of a mobile device to a two-year contract in favor of not-a-contract that ties paying a monthly fee on a device you will never actually own. The move follows the more controversial one made by Verizon Wireless, which also is doing away with upfront subsidies and converting data amounts to fruits.
Sprint also goes a step further in making its device payment plan a “lease,” which more closely ties the consumer to the carrier in the fact they never actually own the device, but in turn are able to upgrade their device on a more frequent schedule. T-Mobile US found this lease thing so cool, they also came out with a similar option for iPhone customers.
These lease agreements differ from the sort-of-more-traditional device payment plans in which a consumer will eventually pay off the full price on that device and own what they have been toting around for the past two years.
Now, I know there are some differences in these contracts, with the most prominent being that the new-style device payment contracts often come with a lower per-month rate plan. However, when factoring in that per-month payment on the device, any sort of service plan saving disappears, let’s keep that part of the deal on the down low, though.
Sure, all of this seems confusing, and that’s confusion for people who follow the industry and have become used to a certain level of confusion from mobile operators. Imagine how your parents feel? Or better yet, dial into a telecom operator’s quarterly conference call and listen to how financial analysts try to fold these new revenue streams into their forecast models. It’s really good stuff.
For me, I never really understood the bad rap device subsidies seemed to have garnered from some quarters. Here is a wireless carrier basically giving a consumer a $400 spiff up front on a device that consumer obviously wants, but only if that device is priced at $200 or less. In return, that carrier only asks that you stay a customer for two years, which as I get older I realize goes by much faster than two years should. And, if for some reason I don’t want to stay a customer over that two-year period, I can simply pay back some of that upfront discount, keep the device and become a free agent.
Heck, every other carrier out there has an offer to pay off any amount of money a consumer may still owe on those device subsidies, basically nulling the contract aspect of the deal. Where is the victim?
Plus, I can’t tell you how many times recently I have had friends and family scream bloody murder that they have to pay full price for their mobile device, of course not realizing what they are getting in exchange. All they see is that they are no longer getting an iPhone for $200 and automatically think the world is out to get them. I should also mention that these people hate having to sign a contract, mostly because they read somewhere that contracts were bad.
Though all of this nonsense, I have to give props to AT&T Mobility for continuing to offer customers a choice in the matter. Want that $200 iPhone? Want a lower per-month rate plan? AT&T Mobility doesn’t care as both options come out in the wash in the end. I guess this extra level of choice could just cause confusion, but if America is about anything it’s about freedom of choice … and skateboarding.
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