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May 28, 2006
'You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows': Why the cellphone telcos are dead companies walking — squared
They are clueless.
While everyone's on YouTube and MySpace enjoying video and music for free anytime, anywhere, from any platform, the telcos continue to spend millions of ad dollars a day on ridiculousness like full-page newspaper ads trumpeting their "anytime minutes," "buckets of minutes," "no roaming charges," "no huge overages," "now night calling starts at 7 p.m.," "Fair & Flexible™ Plan," "Unlimited Sprint Mobile to Mobile Calling," "Two-year subscriber agreement" and whatnot.
Hey, guys: heard of VOIP?
'Cause it's currently eating your lunch and already getting hungry again and starting to sniff out dinner.
Then there's Catherine Zeta-Jones, still the star of T-Mobile's ad campaign even though she's been over since the 20th century.
Be glad — very glad — the brains behind these companies aren't making important life decisions for you.
May 28, 2006 at 10:01 AM | Permalink
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Comments
VOIP quality may be so-so, but with Skype offering free outgoing calls in the contiguous 48 states I may recheck Skype incoming prices.
As to cell phones, I've mentioned consumercellular.com before: 30-day out without penalty, $10 per month (minutes are additional, but competetive), and if you don't want the latest lily-gilding they'll even give you an old and/or refurbished phone.
Posted by: John Anderson | May 29, 2006 8:22:46 PM
I would agree that YouTube and MySpace are not the best examples. I would point to Jamendo, OurMedia, Indy Custom Radio...
Posted by: Tim McCormack | May 29, 2006 1:44:39 AM
Also, youtube consists of copyrighted material ranging from material burned off DVDs as well as "home videos." I find a cat licking its paws boring. MySpace? It had its predecessors which failed.
Posted by: joeblow | May 29, 2006 1:08:14 AM
I keep looking for a decent phine plan, but they have all these pesky fine-print bits in the contract I can't deal with. VOIP is my friend.
Posted by: Tim McCormack | May 29, 2006 1:06:40 AM
VoIP? With year over year disconnects of landline (analog telephone service) with double digits for the local telephone carriers, cellular is the current bright spot for the telcos. The margins are fat and growth is the story the successful telcos are repeating.
Cell phones have become ubiquitous. VoIP as a disruptive technology didn't kill off the venerable analog telephone line but cellular service with its mobility built in callerID, voice mail, call waiting, etc. The telephone companies already have rolled out their VoIP services once Vonage took off.
Posted by: JoeBlow | May 29, 2006 1:06:14 AM
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