Customers crave control, Forrester says

Customers’ need for greater control, the buying habits of teenagers and wireless encroachment into the enterprise are all changing the way telecom service providers need to do their business, according to a Forrester Research survey of consumers and businesses.

Forrester conducted its annual survey of 6,000 businesses and 60,000 consumer households, and released the results in a teleconference Tuesday.

In the consumer market, households with four or more wireless phones grew by 57% in the last year, and much of that growth was based on teen usage, said Charles Golvin, principal analyst in Forrester’s telecom practice.

“These younger users are in control. They exercise control over their daily experience--for example, they use TiVo for video, iTunes and iPods for music and Skype to control who can reach them when,” Golvin said.

Younger users are nomadic and expect to take their Internet experience with them, he added, which will lead to greater demand for bandwidth on wireless devices and the breakdown of the “walled garden” approach wireless carriers have used to deliver content to cellphones. The Forrester research showed one in five wireless customers under the age of 25 uses data compared to one in 10 of those between ages 25 and 34.

Older consumers are being pressured both by the younger consumer market and by their employers to get up to speed on new technology, Forrester Principal Analyst Ellen Daley said. Wireless technology is having a disruptive impact on the enterprise market in multiple ways, she added.

“The company has a wider reach--they are everywhere,” Daley said. “They want control and simplicity. A tapestry of wireless network schemes is emerging that the enterprise needs to control and manage and only a portion is carrier-controlled. Enterprises will have limited tolerance for carrier barriers to giving them the control they want.”

The Forrester survey found 56% of enterprises using wireless LANS they installed themselves. In addition, 47% of companies said they are evaluating or piloting technology to integrate cellular and Wi-Fi networks to increase employee productivity and reduce costs and complexity.

With dual-mode handsets just coming to market in the U.S., “this represents tremendous pent-up demand,” Golvin said. Service providers need to set aside their fears that existing services will be cannibalized in order to meet this demand, he added.

“Mobility closes the gap between work and home--customers want choices in devices, in service providers and in the way they are priced and put together,” he said. “Telecom service providers need to wake up to broader world of innovation that they have been fairly remiss in tapping and work to foster partnerships with others to help customers meet their goals.”