Your View

Another Churn Statistic?

While waiting at the Farmers Telephone Corporative Office in Sumter, SC, I quickly read your article on Cingular's goal to be No. 1 in the wireless market (“The Cingular Sensation,” Jan. 1, 2001). I don't plan to help them get there. I have had continuing billing problems wherein I have been charged roaming fees while in their regional plan area. Probably more than half the time, my phone has to be in the analog mode to operate. This occurs frequently in large areas such as Portsmouth, VA, and Little Rock, AR. In Little Rock, the signal goes through an Alltel tower. It is very frustrating and unfair. Digital service is where the industry is — not where it is going. Should I be subjected to inadequate service — I don't think so. When my contact period expires, I am walking.
Emmerson Smith
ersmith@sc.rr.com

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Needs Vs. Desires

First, I want to compliment you and your staff for the timely, accurate information that you provide in Wireless Review.

Re: Views (Oct. 1 “The Phone Call That Matters Most”). Your article does a great job of capturing what a lot of our customers (business and consumer) are calling needs vs. desires. I lead a group within AT&T Wireless called In-Building Solutions. Our primary focus is improving the quality of in-building wireless service for our customers. Today, we focus on the quality of our voice service, but data clearly is a service that we will integrate into our future in-building wireless offers. As wireless penetration rates increase, customers will be even more demanding regarding the level of service that they receive regardless of whether they are inside or outside (and rightfully so).

We have listened to our customer's in-building wireless needs for the past eight years by providing dedicated resources to satisfy those needs. We plan on being real busy in the future.
Jim Erickson
jim.erickson@attws.com

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I felt compelled to write you regarding the editorial that recently appeared in Wireless Review (Views, Oct. 1). I always enjoy your writing, but your most recent column reinforced once again why I enjoy it so much.

Having dual careers in both public safety and the wireless industry, I watched the events of Sep. 11, 2001, unfold with perhaps a bit more fascination and awe than most. While absorbing hours of media coverage in the days afterwards, I was fascinated by the role that wireless communication was playing in the real-life dramas unfolding in New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. I found it ironic that I found out about the first news of the tragedy at the World Trade Center in the same fashion as many of the workers at the World Trade Center while evacuating the building after the plane struck the first tower. In fact, as I received the first of many news alerts on my wireless phone from a local NBC affiliate, many of those poor souls fleeing the death and destruction at the WTC towers were receiving their first authoritative news of what was happening in their place of employment — not over the public address system but by text messages received over their phones, alphanumeric pagers, and 2-way messaging devices. Additional stories that followed described final calls to loved ones from the doomed airliners and victims located in the rubble at Ground Zero being located after phoning loved ones. The importance of wireless communication in the lives of everyday people has never been more evident.

Most important, however, I applaud your challenge to the wireless carriers to move forward with location-based technology/E-911 services, and to become even more aggressive in improving the coverage of their networks. Personally, I'm disappointed in the direction the wireless industry is traveling ... spending billions developing high-tech "newfangled" services that will have very little market impact here in the United States in the foreseeable future. News flash to the wireless industry!

I speak with existing and prospective wireless customers every day of my life, and they couldn’t care less about what type of new things a wireless phone can do. What they complain the most about is poor call quality and gaps in coverage. Like them, I'm equally frustrated that the same areas that had poor signal quality in 1986 are the same areas where I drop calls today.

Perhaps the events of Sept. 11 will cause wireless executives to re-examine their priorities, but one thing is certain; the editor-in-chief of Wireless Review will be there to remind them of what those priorities should be.
Michael P. Cain
michaelpcain@juno.com
Career firefighter for over 20 years, and owner of Cain Electronics, a wireless dealer selling AT&T and Nextel phones and service.