Fear not, Mike Dano-ranting fans, your leader has not disappeared, but is only resting so as to return stronger with your beloved ravings about all things wrong in wireless. In the meantime, I have been tapped by the all-powerful-foaming-from-the-mouth-one to handle this week’s edition of Worst of the Week.
While I’m sure some will point to a Mr. Plow vs. Plow King comparison between the two of us, let me point out that my contributions to this column should be a little more pleasant than Dano’s as I am more comfortable in the real world while Mike lives a quasi-Tron existence and usually only interacts through e-mail or text messaging, but mostly e-mail as text messaging costs money.
So, enough with the “where’s Dano” and “who am I?” explanation, and onto the regularly scheduled moan-fest.
While Sprint Nextel’s decision to deploy WiMAX technology in its nearly all-encompassing 2.5 GHz spectrum—which came on the heels of the carrier’s plans to speed up the deployment of CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A—has been covered extensively on this Web site and will be even more so in Aug. 14 print issue of RCR Wireless News, I could not help but throw out a couple of comments.
Despite my continued doubts over the claimed benefits of WiMAX over other wireless broadband technologies, I applaud Sprint Nextel for finally making a decision. I was beginning to lose interest on the technology trial announcements and delays in coming to a decision. It looks to be a good deal for vendors, tower companies and hopefully consumers, but the timing of the announcement leaves me bewildered.
Just a week before, Sprint Nextel announced horrid second-quarter results that showed the carrier relying heavily on prepaid customer additions, and posting just a couple hundred thousand direct postpaid additions. Forgetting for a minute all of the CDMA customers Sprint used to add, whatever happened to the Nextel customer magnet that used to be able to post a half-million, high-value, postpaid customer additions every quarter like clockwork? Has the addition of the Sprint name, and reported plans for shutting down Nextel’s iDEN network, so sullied the Nextel brand that no one is signing up for Nextel service?
In a move perhaps to cover up its operational lapses, Sprint Nextel trots out not one, but two network enhancement plans—both of which will have little impact on the carrier’s fundamental operational issues. Rev. A may boost Sprint Nextel’s cache among data users and WiMAX could enable a host of new offerings, but those impacts are not going to be seen for several years. Sprint Nextel needs help now.
The carrier’s inability to lower its customer churn speaks to its continued customer service and perceived network quality troubles, both of which Verizon Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile USA have been able to master at Sprint Nextel’s expense. As a side note, props to Cingular for having turned around what had been a listing ship so quickly and becoming a strong competitor for Verizon Wireless.
Sprint Nextel’s moves are nothing new, having been mastered by magicians since the beginning of time. Make a commotion over here to distract the viewer from what is happening over there. Brilliant!
Unfortunately, if Sprint Nextel is unable to keep investors distracted from its operational ills, the carrier’s management might not be around long enough to reap the rewards of the network enhancements.
(Descend Dano-labeled soapbox)
Other topics of note:
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Like most of you, I enjoy stories that go all wrong in the end. I was a much bigger fan of Reservoir Dogs than Pulp Fiction based on the endings alone. In the same vain, I am expecting nothing but a bloody shootout for Sony’s latest Mylo mobile device. What brainiac thought it would be a good idea to combine an oversized messaging device with the limitations of Wi-Fi connectivity and no voice capabilities—though a claim of future VoIP support is supposed to lessen that deficiency. Let me get this straight, the Mylo costs $350, only allows for text messaging and e-mail, or eventually VoIP services, and only works within range of a hotspot? Where do I start? They might as well price it at $1 million ’cause no one is spending that much; the target market already carries a text-messaging device known as a mobile phone, which also happens to support voice; and I know kids like their coffee, but free hot spots are still few and far between and I doubt Gen-Xers are going to plunk down $10 for access to a hot spot just to send off a “where r u at?” text.
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Opera Software announced Opera Mini users have surfed more than 1 billion Web pages since the handset-based mini-browser was launched earlier this year. Not surprisingly, the more popular sites include Google, community and dating sites, and … wait for it … “domains for more grown-up entertainment.” Come on people, can’t you wait to get home before surfing for grown-up entertainment? You’re better than that.
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Purveyor of prepaid, Virgin Mobile USA launched a made-for-mobile short story told in text message form designed to “raise awareness about the plight of homeless teens among Virgin Mobile’s youth audience.” I am all for trying to teach the spoiled youth of today about social issues and maybe squeezing those lessons into 160 character bites is the way to do it.
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Intrepid RCR Wireless News reporter Colin Gibbs recently hipped me to the growing awareness of so-called background tones. These are sounds mobile users pay for that play in the background of conversations. Did I mention that people pay for these things? Have mobile calls all of a sudden become so clear that we need to inject background noise? And did I mention that people pay for this?
Well that’s it for this week. Again, Dano should be back in the whining saddle next week, all rested up for more juvenile criticisms of people and ideas he is just bitter about because he did not think of them first. And remember, if you have a criticism, send them along to mdano@crain.com.
