Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Telecom: An Industry Everyone Loves to Hate

This is a trend that I've casually noticed over the years, but I am recently beginning to really ponder. Have you ever met someone that's head-over-heals in love with their telecom provider? I've read raving reviews of restaurants, hospitals, banks, and even lawyers (yeah, I know) but never have I heard an unsolicited and heartfelt praise of any tcom institution. Can the industry really be that universally bad? Or, is it possible that this is a business people love to hate?

I hear it all the time with wireless carriers. "I used [insert carrier here], but hated it so I switched to [insert another carrier here]." And, it's odd, but the names of the biggest carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all get placed interchangeably into either of the two slots, depending on who you talk to. So, if everyone's getting frustrated regardless of company: could it be that the problem isn't the company after all?

For starters, a comment on human nature. We love to complain. And, for some reason, there is a mob mentality when it comes to complaining. If one person in an office hates the candy selection in the vending machines, if left unchecked, before you know it everyone is moaning about it... even Fred, the health nut who refuses to eat from vending machines. It's just human nature. Why? Because Fred wants to be like the others--so he adopts their affinities and their disdains. I have no doubt that somewhere along the way, it became trendy to be at odds with your telecom provider--the cable company, the phone company, the wireless carrier, the broadband privder--whoever it is.

"How did such a trend get started?" we must ask, if ever to resolve the issue. My theory: with generation e"X"pectancy. Oh, and don't worry, I cannot be accused of age bias--I'm an x'er myself. So, I can say it. We want it all, we want it now, and we want it free. It's a market demand that many industries have capitalized on by satisfying--hence: consumerism. But it's a bit more challenging for tcom companies to satisfy this desire in their customers. We want native-tongue support specialists (in a country with sky-rocketing health benefits and mimimum wage above $8/hr) but we want it for free. We want faster speeds, but we don't want our yard dug up nor to bear the costs of millions of miles of fiber. We want a company that's committed to our needs, but we don't want to commit to a contract.

But the problem can't be oversimplified to just a whiny generation. The reality is: the system is flawed... or at least, it's feeble.

Consider this. A waiter cannot improve your food, no matter how hard he wants to serve. The cook himself is even limited by the supplies he has. The farmer can try as he may to improve the quality of his produce and meat, but at the end of the day, he has a limited resource.

In reality, the majority of the industry that everyone loves to hate is comprised of waiters and waitresses. And, while there are more "cooks" today than ever before, that market is still somewhat limited. However, the most notable fact about our telecom industry is that all the cooks are buying primarily from one age-old farmer that has largely built this nation's telecom infrastructure for over a century.

But I'm the last person to point a finger at "THE phone company." The reality of the situation boils down to this: despite their best efforts to fill every customer's desire, our nation's telecom industry at large is trying desperately to meet an unprecedented growth in demand... and the resources simply cannot keep up.

But I'm hopeful. Why? Why am I so amicable to the industry everyone loves to hate? Because just today, my "waitress" for residential broadband sent a letter to my house saying that upgrades in my area have doubled my speeds--on the house! Can't beat that.

Labels: "Internet infrastructure", Broadband, tcom, Telecommunication, The phone company