John Strand – Founder Strand Consulting

There is such a thing as industry analysts kissing up to customers, and then there is this press release received this morning from Strand Consult:

“It’s an irony that the world’s operators, which provide communication services, should frequently do such a poor job at communicating. There are few services in the world more demanded than mobility and connectivity, and yet operators who provide these essential capabilities are maligned. Given that people love to communicate, they should love their mobile operator, the same way they love their phones, cars and other personal devices.”

Obviously, the author lives on a different planet than the rest of us. While I don’t hate my mobile carrier, AT&T, as much as many seem to, I am far from loving the company. AT&T also provides my home office Internet and, were I made of gold, cable television and telephony.

It is not maligning to note poor service and prices that seem a poor value for money. If I bought the whole package, my wife and I would pay perhaps $500-a-month for wireless, home broadband and cable TV. That’s just nuts, so we don’t.

Of course, hating AT&T is nothing new. Comedienne Lily Tomlin started a career making people laugh at the phone company. For years, my family lived in fear the extra telephones I’d installed in our home would be discovered.

My conflicting opinion here is that I believe the world of American telecom was better back when AT&T still ran it. I opposed breaking up the Bell System and still wonder what we have now that a well-regulated monopoly would not have done better and more quickly. But, that’s for another day.

The Strand release continues:

“Operators have lost customers’ trust because of the proliferation of misguided regulation that drives a wedge between operators and their customers and because of a lack of leadership in the policy dialogue.”

I’d almost suggest that misguided deregulation is to more to blame. We made a huge mistake in allowing companies to be in both the content and carriage business. When you control the distribution, it’s just too easy to use it to advantage the content you also control. These companies are also just too big for comfort.

When customers have limited choices, it is easy for carriers to essentially collude with one another to decide what the market gets, almost independent of what it wants.

Indeed, the Strand release — which is well-presented industry-speak — ends with a full-on attack on telecom industry critics and a laughable  assertion that big telecom has “the interests of their customers at heart.”

“Contrary to the de-humanizing and elitist view of many so-called consumer advocacy organizations, consumers are not monolithic. They have different needs for telecommunications, necessitating different approaches. The fact of the matter is that no entity is a better position to give consumers what they want than operators. Moreover operators know more about their consumers than anyone and have the interests of their consumers at heart.”

This may be what it takes to sell research reports and consulting, but it doesn’t change the landscape of predatory carriers gouging customers whenever they are given the chance. If carriers want to be loved, there are many things they can do. Lower cable bills and ending cellular customer lock-in would be great starts. Likewise, getting out of the content business.

Would that make me love my carrier? Probably not, but it would be a start.

photo credit: garryknight via photopin cc