| Local Number Portability and Wireless.
Why should you care? |
| LNP set for November 24th,
2003 |
 One of the many factors that regulators have
introduced to increase competition in voice telephony is the concept of
local number portability. Because many customers are reluctant to
change phone numbers in order to change carriers, number portability is
the key to an open market in wire line voice.
Until now, wireless phones have been more immune to churn, or customer
changes in carrier, in part because number portability hasn't
applied. Now that it will happen, what will happen?
First, the thing that binds the average customer and wireless carrier
together is a contract, not the lack of local number portability.
The fee to get out of these contracts is formidable, so even portability
isn't going to induce those under contract to switch.
This
means that your carrier will have a top priority to have you resign
contract extensions prior to the November 24th date.
About
25% of wireless customers are well beyond their contract period, and fully
50% have either no contract or less than a year to run. Wireless
carriers will conduct marketing blitzes with the idea of resigning these
customers with signing bonuses, high end phones, and free minutes just to
name a few tactics.
We obviously are reluctant to have our clients to do so until we
understand what the market will bear in new plans and rates in an LNP
environment
Now Verizon has added the concept of providing LNP from wireline to
wireless( more on this in next month's edition). So is this a good
thing? Certainly. The advantages to you? That's a story
waiting to be written.
|
| Telecom Billing Complaints
Increase |
| Led by the 310% increase in complaints against MCI, consumers
are paying for the woes in the Telecom Industry.
MCI received almost twice as many complaints as the bigger
AT&T. Complaints also rose at Sprint, SBC, Qwest, and
Verizon. Complaints about bills are the most frequent type of
complaint. Consumer advocates say that complaints might be up because carriers
have cut jobs and investments in recent years amid the industry's
implosion.
Companies obviously say that customer service is a top priority, however
companies have cut almost 45,000 jobs. Most have come from the
Customer Service side of the house since Technical staff is a must have with
technology ever changing.
Other complaints come from "bundling" plans that combine both
local and long distance service. A lot of these plans come with
caveats on usage. Consumers are finding that "unlimited" has
confines too.
Unfortunately that knowledge comes in the form of a
bill. Statistics on CLEC's (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers
ie. McLeod USA, LDMI, TDS. KMC.) are unavailable since they aren't under the
same reporting requirements as the RBOC's (Regional Bell Operating
Companies. ie SBC, Verizon).
Total Solutions Group is committed to
discovering avenues to hold them accountable as well in this space in the
near future. |
|
|
| SBC Michigan
Given Approval To Sell Long Distance! |
| SBC has introduced multiple packages designed to
incorporate this new service. SBC will provide "bundled"
services (local, long distance, cellular, and data) in an attempt to recapture
previous customers, and win new ones.
Some of these plans come with
several caveats so read the fine print, or call us before signing a new contract
or to sort through the offer. |
| IDT To
Offer All-You-Can-Plan |
| In another attempt to bundle services, IDT will
offer unlimited local and long distance plans for $40 a month.
The plan
will include caller ID. How rivals like MCI Neighborhood, SBC and Sprint
will response is unclear at this point. |
| Microsoft To
Introduce Cellphone |
| Microsoft, in a partnership with Motorola, and AT&T
wireless is introducing a new handset called the "MPx200 smart phone".
It
will use the Windows operating system and is designed to allow professionals the
ability to quickly extract phone numbers, appointments, and emails from a
Windows PC by placing the handset in a cradle connected to the PC. |
| TSG Staff
Additions |
|
Steve Harris has joined our staff as the Strategic
Director for Goverments, Schools, and Healthcare. Steve brings over 30
years of Telecom experience and application expertise to our team and you'll
feel his wonderful effect on our service offerings!
Sandy Fairchild has joined our staff as the Director Of
Physical Plant and Engineering Services. Sandy has spent 25 years in
Telecom with ITI, McLeodUSA, Communiquest; providing sales engineering expertise
and network/wiring management. She will provide the Wire Maintenance Care
Service Offerings in order to better serve our clients! |
| Latest
Announcements |
|
MICTA selects Total Solutions Group as a Selected & Preferred
Vendor for Telecom Audit Services
The Womens Economic Council of Greater Detroit endorses Total Solutions
Group as a Preferred Member Benefits Vendor!
|
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