T-Mobile CEO Legere apologizes and AT&T offers up unlimited data? 2016 looks like a party!
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:
Strange happenings in the mobile telecom space this week as T-Mobile US CEO John Legere … apologized? And AT&T announced a somewhat affordable “unlimited” data plan … with a hitch.
First, T-Mobile US’ boisterous and unrepentant CEO John Legere asked for forgiveness from consumer group Electronics Frontier Foundation for challenging the firm’s position in its recent report looking at T-Mobile US’ Binge On video streaming platform. That report found T-Mobile US was throttling network speeds for Binge On users, which it must be said T-Mobile US sort of said it was doing when it launched the service last year.
Legere’s apology was for seeming to question EFF’s pro-consumer intentions from the report, which he generically said was “confusing consumers” on just what the Binge On offering was.
“I will however apologize for offending EFF and its supporters,” Legere said. “Just because we don’t completely agree on all aspects of Binge On doesn’t mean I don’t see how they fight for consumers. We both agree that it is important to protect consumers’ rights and to give consumers value. We have that in common, so more power to them. As I mentioned last week, we look forward to sitting down and talking with the EFF and that is a step we will definitely take. Unfortunately, my color commentary from last week is now drowning out the real value of Binge On – so hopefully this letter will help make that clear again.”
I am all for someone apologizing for something they did not mean to do or say, or if what they did or say was wrong. And in this case, perhaps Legere did step over the line in questioning the intent of EFF’s report and findings.
But, as I have said before, I still think T-Mobile US has been pretty open with Binge On in terms of notifying customers they can control whether they want to use the service and just what using the service entails. Could they have done or do some things differently in terms of how the service is run? Probably. But, just the fact T-Mobile US is tackling a situation that is a growing headache for the mobile telecom space (streaming video services) will lead to the carrier taking on some criticism.
For me the most worrisome thing about the apology was that the “open letter” was completely “G” rated. Not even a “damn” or “heck” to be seen. I guess that’s probably the appropriate path when putting out an apology, I just hope it’s not the new norm.
And if that whole Legere apologizing thing wasn’t crazy enough, AT&T this week re-opened the taps on unlimited data for smartphone customers, which it initially led the market in turning off.
However, the latest offer does have a hook in that for customers to get their precious unlimited data (capped at 22 gigabytes per month before AT&T Mobility says it “may” throttle speeds) they also need to sign up for AT&T’s DirecTV or U-verse television service. Gotcha!
For those not following AT&T that closely or for anyone under the age of 30 with no interest in “old-school” television services, AT&T recently acquired DirecTV for all the money in the world and is looking to get some of that money back. One way AT&T figured it could do that was by more closely linking its television offerings, which the kids of today are adopting less of, with its mobile telecom service, which the kids of today can’t get enough of. It’s sort of like when mom would hide the broccoli inside the ice cream in order to get me to eat something green … besides mint chocolate chip ice cream.
I am all for AT&T trying to get back some of the loot it spent on buying DirecTV, and there is no doubt any offer of “unlimited” data is a hot selling point in this day and age of dwindling “unlimited” data options. But, I am guessing this offer is probably not going to move the needle much in either the adoption of DirecTV or U-verse television services or drive much data traffic on AT&T Mobility’s network.
The cynic in me thinks the whole offer is really more of a publicity stunt than a real offer. Let investors know you are trying to do something to further recoup the all-the-money-in-the-world price paid for DirecTV as well as throwing a bone to the vocal minority raging for unlimited mobile data options. See, everyone’s happy!
Overall, a pretty hectic week in terms of craziness. If this is how 2016 is going to be handled, I am a big fan.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. Here are some quick, but satisfying extras:
–Merger-mania this week once again settled in on the telecom equipment vendor space as Nokia completed its acquisition (don’t call it a merger) of Alcatel-Lucent (also not a merger).
The whole process is actually quite convoluted and thus quite funny. I would like to think I follow the market pretty close and have a good handle and all the goings on within said market. But, I gotta say trying to keep track of which vendor is sleeping with which other vendor has been tricky.
I would recommend for those of you also confused on the matter to check out some great analysis on the M&A activity offered up this week by Earl Lum from ELJ Wireless Research. Maybe throw on the theme to “Dynasty” in the background for added effect.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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