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:
So, I guess it’s official, marketing does indeed rule the wireless industry. I know that is not really news or really something that I just realized, but news from this week reinforced that notion to a level that I was not aware existed, and I am still trying to deal with the ramifications in my head.
You see, earlier this week T-Mobile USA went all cuckoo’s nest when it announced that it will begin marketing its HSPA+ services as “4G.” T-Mobile USA reasoned that since its HSPA+ network provides network speeds that the carrier claims are in line, if not superior, to those speeds being offered by other operators using the “4G” tag that it too could use the term for its service.
That points seems logical enough in a vacuum, where I can only guess it is also very loud and thus makes the act of deciphering logic from nonsense a difficult task. This is the only excuse I can figure for what is becoming a marketing disaster just waiting to happen.
(Of course, the industry’s primary driver of the 4G misnomer, Sprint Nextel, may claim that T-Mobile USA is getting ahead of itself in that speed alone does not a 4G network make. But, that I will assume is an argument they will make quietly as the current version of WiMAX that Sprint Nextel is touting with its 4G tag is also not really a 4G technology.)
Just last week I wrote about how the official technical body, the oh-so-menacing sounding International Telecommunications Union, had come up with the official specifications for 4G technology and in those specification none of the currently commercially launched mobile networks – be it WiMAX, LTE or HSPA+ – were anywhere close to meeting the targets. Because of this, as well as a report from the Yankee Group that showed that more than half of consumers still had no idea what 3G meant, I figured it was foolish for operators to continue hawking their more advanced networks with the lame 4G term and instead come up with some cool names.
I will admit that I was not surprised this suggestion did not gain any ground as I figured most marketing departments were too busy watching focus groups behind one-way mirrors or shopping for the latest in square-rimmed glasses.
Sure the argument can be made that the marketing term of 4G has nothing to do with the actual technical requirements and instead is a way to show consumers that the service is faster than what they have seen with 3G. But, that is based on the notion that the term 3G was indeed reserved for services that were based on an actual technical term that those now using 4G were only too happy to flaunt when they could, but are now disregarding in the name of marketing. I just went cross-eyed.
When questioned as to whether this co-opting of the 4G brand may cause confusion with consumers, T-Mobile USA representatives brushed aside such talk with something about how consumers will be able to see the service for themselves and realize they are using something better than 3G, so it must be 4G. This might make sense if these same consumers also had any clue that there was also a 2G and a 1G technology – terms that for some reason no carrier seemed to use in their marketing jargon at that time – and thus would continue to move up the number scale to 4G.
And then there is the mind-warping question of what happens when T-Mobile USA launches the 42 Mbps version of HSPA+ in the coming years? Does that become 5G? Or better yet, 42G?
Also, why are carriers looking to copy each other with how they brand their services? This idea of brand copying would be similar to if Ford decided to come out with a sports car called the Corvette. Sure it might be great to glean some of the brand recognition already established by Chevrolet in the Corvette name, but do consumers really want to shop for items that all have the same name? Haven’t we learned anything from all the numbers Levi’s attaches to all of its jeans?
I guess if anyone at this point should be applauded for staying out of the 4G mud-wrestling pool it’s those folks at AT&T Mobility that have managed to (so far) not place the 4G label on either its current deployment of HSPA+ or its planned launch of LTE services. Of course, I am sure this is just a temporary thing as the desire to join the mob is if anything standard operating procedures for mobile carriers.
So, well done mobile industry. You have now placed all of your marketing eggs in the 4G basket in hopes that consumers will have any clue as to what it means or what makes one offering different from the other. That should work out well.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Speaking of awesome names that are future proof, I think the guys over at Omnitron Systems Technology are leading the race for the most awesome and future-proofed name of them all. With that name this company can produce just about anything. Calculators; push pins; nuclear reactors; Cyborgs; 4G wireless services.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@ardenmedia.com.
