Worst of the Week: Getting the message

Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
OK, so I’m pretty sure the whole wireless messaging thing is screwed up. It doesn’t make any sense. It does however make lots (and lots and lots) of cents. Though it doesn’t make scents.
Right, sorry, that pun always gets me off track. Back to my point:
The whole wireless messaging scene needs a serious revamp. It’s all out of whack. And for a service that has been so well received, I think an overhaul is long overdue.
First, let me set the stage: CTIA tells me that U.S. wireless subscribers sent a total of 28.8 billion text messages in June, a number that is up astoundingly from the 7.2 billion sent during June 2006. My point is that a lot of people use wireless messaging, which is notable considering the number of what I think are glaring problems with the service.
What exactly is wrong with messaging? OK, first off, composing a message is unnecessarily convoluted. Take, for example, my phone: I have the option of sending either a text message or a picture message. If I want to send an e-mail, I have to navigate to a completely different section of my phone’s menu (despite the fact that it is possible to send a text message to an e-mail address). I know some phones handle this function better than others, but this knotty setup is pretty common across the vast majority of feature phones out there today.
Why can’t you just compose a message? If you want to send a picture, why can’t you just add it to your message, instead of composing a completely separate message? And why can’t you simply tie your phone to an e-mail address, thereby sending all your messages from an e-mail address everyone already knows?
I know some of these functions are, in some cases, spectacularly technically complicated, but judging from the amazing advancements in the wireless industry over the past several years, I don’t think it’s too much to ask.
But this message-composition situation isn’t even the worst part of the whole mixed-up messaging market, at least in my opinion. For example, why don’t carriers make better use of the messaging services they already offer?
Specifically, why don’t carriers offer a “warning” message when you approach the limit of your monthly bucket of minutes? Or update you with the total due on your monthly service plan? Or even just offer some free alerts, like a weekly weather forecast?
With 28 billion messages per month, I don’t think stuff like this is too much to ask.
But that’s not even the worst of it, in my opinion. Here’s the thing that’s really causing me to quiver in rage: The new 20-cents-per-message standard. Sprint Nextel started it, and now Verizon Wireless is on the 20-cent boat too.
Do you remember when the industry standard was 10 cents per message? Whatever happened to that? I’ll tell you what: First Sprint Nextel changed it to 15 cents per message late in 2006, and then the rest of the nation’s major carriers followed suit in the subsequent months. And now the same thing is happening again, to 20 cents per message.
I don’t want to sling around inflammatory words like collusion . but I guess I will.
But that’s not even the worst of it! What’s the worst of it, you ask? Why, emergency alerts, of course.
Sprint Nextel just announced it’s going to start testing emergency alerts in a California county-the first carrier to even mention such an effort.
Now, wireless carriers are not required to implement any kind of emergency-alert service (thanks to our forward-thinking government) but I don’t think that lets them off the hook. After all, the 2004 Asian tsunami killed 225,000 people, and a wireless emergency-alert service could have significantly reduced that death toll. It’s not that hard to imagine a similar disaster hitting the United States.
Now, I know I can watch CNN on my phone thanks to the amazing advancements in the U.S. wireless market, but I think I’m probably one of about three people in the nation who actually does that. A wireless emergency-alerts service would probably be a good idea for the other 250 million U.S. wireless subscribers who don’t watch CNN on their phone.
And the funny thing about this whole deal is that Sprint Nextel is the one on the forefront of emergency alerts. If there was one carrier that already has enough on its plate, it’s Sprint Nextel.
OK! Enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–A company called Pudding Media got $8 million in venture funding for its idea to serve up ads based on the content of people’s telephone conversations. If a terrible idea is worth $8 million, I wonder how much a good idea is worth?
–Sprint Nextel announced a number of Xohm-related movements in conjunction with the Consumer Electronics Show. However, there were no actual commercial devices in the offing. Who needs devices, anyway?
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at [email protected].