Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wireless: Answer the Call New FCC rules could really expand cell-phone use -- if carriers play it right

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 20:49:21 -0400

Wireless: Answer the Call New FCC rules could really expand cell-phone use -- if
carriers play it right

In just two months, cell-phone carriers warn, the world of wireless could
turn into pandemonium. Why? The Federal Communications Commission is
expected to require service providers, starting on Nov. 24, to allow
customers to take their phone numbers with them when they switch to another
carrier. The fixed number was one of the few tools the companies had to
retain customers. Now, the industry, already battered by competition, is
girding for a free-for-all. "When one-third of subscribers already change
carriers every year, you don't need this to spur competition," frets Tom
Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Assn.
(CTIA).

No doubt the carriers will take a hit. But instead of agonizing over the
extra competition, the cellular companies should follow the lead of Verizon
Wireless and embrace the new rules as an opportunity. The pain could pay off
if the change spurs carriers to fix deep problems.

Think of wireless as a moody teen, a powerful lunk brimming with
potential -- but hardly reliable. Like that adolescent, consumers need to be
able to count on this industry before users will be willing to trust it with
important jobs. Half of all cell-phone users are dissatisfied, grousing
about everything from network dependability and sound quality to phone
selection, according to a Forrester Research Inc. survey done last year. If
it can remedy those problems, wireless can enter the same league with
regular phones or electric lights. Here's how:

SWITCHING

Today, 3.5% of U.S. households have abandoned their landline phones and rely
solely on cellular -- vs. 5% of Western Europeans, says Forrester Research.
The U.S. industry could speed the ascent of wireless -- and enjoy the
resulting surge in cellular usage -- by pushing the feds to require the Baby
Bells to let consumers take their landline phone numbers with them when they
go completely wireless. The U.S. Telecom Assn., a local phone lobbying
group, says it accepts the idea, mandated by the Telecommunications Act of
1996, but warns it will be extremely difficult to implement.

WHITE PAGES

Cellular operators have resisted offering a directory of wireless users'
numbers for fear that competitors could call and poach their customers. But
now, the CTIA is urging them to pool the numbers into one database, to be
run by a third-party company. Only subscribers who consent will have their
numbers listed. With adequate safeguards, directory assistance would make
wireless calling more mainstream, and increase usage.

NETWORK UPGRADES

Capital investment by wireless carriers usually pays off. High-spending
Verizon now leads the industry.

It would take anywhere from $50 billion to $100 billion to bring U.S.
wireless infrastructure up to snuff, the Yankee Group says. While not every
carrier can undertake the hefty investments to fill coverage holes
overnight, they can come clean about weak spots, with detailed maps showing
where phones will or won't work. Congress and the California Public Utility
Commission may even require wireless carriers to make fuller disclosures
about reliability, just as ice cream makers are forced to disclose the
number of grams of fat in a scoop of vanilla swirl.

And who knows? If those reliability numbers get good enough, maybe companies
will start advertising them. That's when we'll know that the cell-phone
industry has arrived.

By Catherine Yang
With Roger O. Crockett in Chicago

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_40/b3852101_mz063.htm

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