Man on the Street

I know wireless devices have penetrated the consumer masses when I find myself in conversations with friends, defending why the wireless industry does one thing or another. My latest conversation was this morning with my friend Michael. Mind you, he just got his Sprint PCS phone two months ago. Before that, he didn't have much to say about my work or this industry. Now, however, all of that has changed.

Michael: You really should do a commentary on per-second billing.

Me, the curious editor: Oh, yeah? Why is that?

Michael: Because Aerial has it. It really does give it an edge with wireless prospects. My service is per-minute billing. I resent that because if I talk for 61 seconds, Sprint charges me for two minutes. Aerial would charge me for 61 seconds.

Me, perplexed: Yes, but you have 180 free minutes of use. As far as I can tell, you don't even use half of that in a month. So what difference does it make if they charge you by the minute or by the second?

Michael: First, I do pay for those minutes. I pay $30 a month. Whether I use those minutes or not, it is the principle of it all.

Me, frustrated: OK. On the per-second billing, how much are those customers paying per second?

Michael: I don't know.

Me, hoping to make a point: For simplicity's sake, what if they charged a penny a second, the equivalent of 60 cents a minute. And what if the per-minute companies charged only 45 cents a minute. Wouldn't it bother you to be paying more a minute with per-second billing? If you talked for two minutes, it would cost you 30 cents more.

Michael: Sure, there would be trade-offs. But look at my 61-second conversation. It would cost me only 61 cents rather than 90 cents. It's all about competition, you know.

Me: Oh, now you are an expert on wireless competition?

Michael: Be serious. When it was just the big airline companies out there, they could charge you $500 to fly from Kansas City to Chicago. But then Southwest came into the market and charged less than half that. The big airlines countered by saying that people like to reserve their own seat and prefer snacks over peanuts. Southwest said, "No way." It said customers want two things: When they fly from point A to B, they want to be on time and do it at the lowest price. Same thing applies to wireless products. All wireless carriers should offer per-second billing. If Sprint did that, they would eat Aerial for lunch.

Me: So what you are telling me is you want all of these wireless companies to offer per-second billing. Does that mean you want them all to assign the same prices, apply the same billing and offer the same enhanced services? What's the benefit in that? They all become plain vanilla.

Michael: No. I'm saying they all need to take advantage of all of their competitors' good ideas as they apply to customers. You know, get rid of contracts. Go to per-second billing. Provide free minutes. Then if they want to add unique features, go for it.

Me: I can't believe you are getting this worked up over wireless service and billing methods.

Michael: I'm just saying you need to do a commentary on per-second billing. Tell all of the carriers they need to do it.

Me: I'm not doing a commentary on per-second billing.

Michael: Fine. I'll just call Andrew Sukawaty myself and tell him he's missing the boat on this.

I'll just call and say, "Hey, Andy. This is Michael, man on the street."