Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Verizon: We're Laughing at You
Over the years while living in Hong Kong, I've seen the US continually lagging in ICT growth and development. But perhaps this is the darkest and most ominous sign yet that the US is dangerously insipid, naive and ready to be roadkill.
Ivan Seidenberg, the CEO of Verizon, in the SF Chronicle, first lambasts public Wifi networks being created by municipalities such as San Francisco and Philadelphia. Standard FUD for a telecom CEO. What is truly flabbergasting is this comment about his own cell network:
I can only speak for what I know about China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But whether you're in Beijing downtown, the Hong Kong subway, Gobi Desert, the Three Gorges, Guilin's karst peaks, or a Shanghai elevator, you're covered. Yes, Mr. Seidenberg, in the elevator of the Charms Hotel in Shanghai, is a plaque inside that says, "This elevator is covered by China Mobile."
People in Asia expect ubiquitous coverage. They're appalled when they visit the States.
Why have US customers tolerated bad cell phone service for so long? Shouldn't competition have delivered better results? And I don't buy the excuse that "The US is a big country, with lower population density." Reception in midtown Manhattan stinks. Reception in Sunnyvale, California, in Silicon Valley, with tightly packed $750,000 homes stinks.
Please tell me something optimistic about the US mobile market.
Thanks to Dan Gillmor for pointing this out.
Ivan Seidenberg, the CEO of Verizon, in the SF Chronicle, first lambasts public Wifi networks being created by municipalities such as San Francisco and Philadelphia. Standard FUD for a telecom CEO. What is truly flabbergasting is this comment about his own cell network:
"Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" he said. "The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement."Did you hear that? It's the sound of 1.3 billion Chinese laughing at you.
I can only speak for what I know about China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But whether you're in Beijing downtown, the Hong Kong subway, Gobi Desert, the Three Gorges, Guilin's karst peaks, or a Shanghai elevator, you're covered. Yes, Mr. Seidenberg, in the elevator of the Charms Hotel in Shanghai, is a plaque inside that says, "This elevator is covered by China Mobile."
People in Asia expect ubiquitous coverage. They're appalled when they visit the States.
Why have US customers tolerated bad cell phone service for so long? Shouldn't competition have delivered better results? And I don't buy the excuse that "The US is a big country, with lower population density." Reception in midtown Manhattan stinks. Reception in Sunnyvale, California, in Silicon Valley, with tightly packed $750,000 homes stinks.
Please tell me something optimistic about the US mobile market.
Thanks to Dan Gillmor for pointing this out.
