Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Carriers Jockey For Position

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 18:31:58 -0400

Carriers Jockey For Position

October 15, 2003 

Carriers' increasingly belligerent arguments over competitively 
charged issues such as local number portability and push-to-talk 
services may indicate even more contentious wireless campaigning in 
the coming months.
 
After years of delays and with the exception of some last-minute 
legal manoeuvreings, the industry increasingly appears ready to 
accept the FCC's Nov. 24 deadline for the top 100 U.S. metropolitan 
markets. Verizon Wireless signed an LNP agreement with parent 
Verizon Communications. Nextel Communications Inc. and Sprint signed 
a cross-carrier service level agreement they say will allow phone 
numbers to port more quickly and easily between the two carriers. 
Sprint also says its LNP plans are on track for a smooth transition 
come the deadline. And T-Mobile USA? It's on board as well.

CTIA in September filed a writ of mandamus at the U.S. Court of 
Appeals–a legal step designed to get the FCC to further explain LNP 
requirements–but the court had not acted upon that filing as of 
presstime.

Volume goes up Meanwhile, when it comes to marketing and legal 
wrangling, the rhetoric is growing in volume among some carriers, 
particularly Verizon and Nextel. Analysts for months now have 
attempted to identify which carriers stand to lose the most 
customers and which ones stand to gain as a result of customers' 
ability to keep their phone numbers when switching service 
providers. 

Verizon Wireless, with its vast network and increasingly advanced 
services and marketing abilities, has been trumpeting its 
preparations for LNP for a few of months now. While it's adopted a 
relatively aggressive stance on its LNP–challenging other carriers 
to reveal what they've done to prepare for the mandate–Verizon 
Wireless isn't so much breaking from the rest of the industry as it 
is getting out front with the competitive message, analysts say.

Preparing for battle "This is a highly competitive battleground," 
says Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson. A battleground that, 
according to industry watchers, already is showing hints of victors 
and vanquished. 

But LNP is not the only contentious issue. There's also Verizon 
Wireless' running legal and marketing battle with Nextel over push-
to-talk services. Both companies have publicly challenged everything 
from the copyrighted use of the "push-to-talk" term to the use 
of "immediate" in describing services in advertisements.

Nextel, for instance, told a New York federal judge that Verizon 
Wireless shouldn't be able to use in its current ad campaign the 
message that touts its PTT service as one provided on the "best, 
most reliable network." Nextel says its service is better and 
Verizon ads depicting Nextel customers as having difficulties 
connecting with their PTT service are deceptive.

Verizon Wireless shot back, saying Nextel was only "trying to 
protect its monopoly" on PTT service by hammering a new competitor 
with legal obstacles.

Analysts say the loud squabbles are only the beginning. "There is 
going to be a push to differentiate at all costs among carriers in 
the coming months," says Adam Guy, wireless analyst at the Yankee 
Group. Large carriers already are trying to market beyond price and 
focus more on services and service quality–a sign carriers are 
serious in the fight against making wireless a commodity service.

Differentiating their services and emphasizing network quality 
likely are the big battleground issues for carriers in the coming 
months, Guy says. "Verizon was the first to use quality of its 
network as a marketing strategy," he says. "Consumers are 
increasingly savvy to mudslinging ads by competing corporations. 
They are, however, receptive to catchy ads for products that look 
like they have quality behind them." 

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA329163&spacedesc=Departments&stt=000

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