Where do your loyalties lie? As wired and wireless telecom, Internet, cable and satellite companies begin to bundle services to compete for larger chunks of your money, the answer to the loyalty question becomes more important for each of the carriers that offer a piece of the bundle.
A quick assessment of my own business loyalties finds this:
- I have no perceived loyalty to my cable operator, but have been with them forever. We don’t have satellite TV because we’re too lazy to research whether it would be a good value for us, but our choice of cable television was made strictly by default-it was readily available when we moved into our house nine years ago. We talk about switching to satellite TV all the time, but don’t because of the perceived cost of the dish and the cost of extra receivers we’d need.
- For better or worse, I am extremely loyal to my wireline phone company because-barring mass disasters-I know that a 911 call made from our house will be delivered properly. No other company can give me that same assurance.
- My loyalty to my wireless operator is forced by a two-year contract, although I’m satisfied with my carrier and been a customer for several years and have no plans to switch.
- I have no loyalty to my ISP. I do, however, have a strong loyalty to the search engine I use because it’s good.
So in a nutshell, my main loyalty is to my wired telecom provider because I believe they can handle a 911 call-a service I hope not to have to use. And yet most of the talk on bundling centers on innovation.
Indeed, Time-Warner Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt told the CTIA Wireless 2006 audience that constant innovation by the cable company would get customers to stay with them. I’ve no doubt that people will radically change how they watch TV in coming years, whether it’s time shifting or place shifting, on a PC or wireless handset. The Walt Disney Co. announced last week it would allow people to watch TV shows a day later on the Internet, a simple move that has the power to change how people watch their favorite shows. And there is talk that free TV shows should be available on demand, not forced into a specific time frame.
These innovations, whether from the satellite TV carriers, wireless carriers, cable providers or ISPs, will alter the consumer communications and entertainment landscapes.
But in the end, I’m not going to discount the reliability that comes from the plain old telephone service, although it’s not nearly as sexy as the ability to watch Desperate Housewives online.
