Embracing Change for AT&T and the Mobile Industry
The Mobile Industry Really is a Disgrace.
And truthfully, it’s not something that can be played down.
Now, I finally got to sit down and read this article that I came across via some online awesome ness.
I’ve read a few articles by the “Fake Steve Jobs” before, and they’ve always provided me with comedic relief – and it’s what I’ve come to expect from such a place. But man, this post is just so much more. While he may fancy the post up with a few expletives here and there, the meat of the post bears more weight than a table-full discussion.
Perhaps it is due in part because time is moving toward the early morning hours, but I can’t help to be struck by how much this article resonates inside of me.
AT&T is known as one of the worst cell-phone providers in the States, with people constantly, and consistently having their calls dropped in “high usage” areas like New York City and the San Fransisco area. Unfortunately Apple took AT&T to the top by providing them with exclusivity to the iPhone, and AT&T isn’t doing much to improve their service. Recently, AT&T has come out and decided that charging customers for ‘heavier usage’ is inevitable because an apparent 3% of their users use up approximately 40% network capabilities.
The article had a little bit a lot of bits to say about that, including:
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I mean if you [AT&T Rep Randall Stephenson] did understand how to do things, your guys wouldn’t be standing up at Wall Street conferences and complaining about how much traffic you’re getting. Instead, you would be running around like a fucking maniac trying to build out your fucking network and make it the best network in the world — and the only reason you would ever need to talk to me would be to thank me for creating a phone that’s so amazing that it draws people to your shit network in the first place.
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Which, to me, really puts things in context. Here is a company – a massive company – that is faced with a problem an issue. They’re at a fork in the road, if you will… one that actually spans a ton of industries. Let’s be real – the face of technology is changing (and evolving), and will always be doing just that. Here, with the mobile industry, is a phone that revolutionized surfing the (mobile) web. A typical user is expecting a desktop experience from their mobile phone any place that they choose. The ball is in AT&T’s court – they can either embrace this evolution and provide its users with what they have come to expect, OR they can suppress their customers’ desires with higher prices, bandwidth caps, thus limiting the capability of everyone involved.
What a world that we live in, that companies can forget that the basis of their business is customer satisfaction. Without us, they don’t have much. They need to listen to us – to really tune in and deliver on what we are demanding. The “mobile web experience” isn’t going anywhere – start now without delay or you’ll just be digging yourself a hole.
Oh, and Rogers – you’re no better. Charging an arm and a leg for a 95gb capped internet package… point made.
Word. Life.
db
