Verizon CEO Calls Municipal Wi-Fi 'a Dumb Idea'

ozone writes " An interview with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg quotes him as saying that 'Municipal Wi-Fi is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard' and 'Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?' -- apparently Verizon's own 'Can You Hear Me Now' ad campaign has given customers 'unrealistic expectations' that their phone service will work everywhere. What?"

Comments

Point - counterpoint...

[argent]

Seidenberg said private companies like Verizon, which already run data networks, are much better positioned than government agencies to offer high- speed Internet service.

But private telephone companies aren't doing it. Governments and enthusiastic hoppyists are. Private restaurants and bookstores are. Private phone companies are trying to get individuals to pay through the nose by the megabyte for 4G services and selling them data-enabled phones that they can't access their preferred data services from.

I have a Verizon phone. It's more powerful than my PDA, but I can't run any of my own software on it... in fact I can't run ANY software on it, except by paying exorbitant rates to Verizon for "Buy It Now". Verizon has a cash cow in their captive customer base, and they don't just milk it... they bleed it. Is it any wonder people don't see them as the natural providers of high speed data services, services... I note again... they they're not even providing.

"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."

You're selling me a telephone, and you tell me it's good enough to replace my landline. Why shouldn't I take you at your word?

AT least your coverage is better than T-Mobile. T-Mobile I had to walk to the other side of my street to get a signal. Hell with "in my house" how about "in my back yard"?

Last year, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered all phone companies to give customers 30 days to test a service without slapping them with hundreds of dollars in early cancellation fees.

A few years ago I had a nice PDA-phone combo. I went to the phone companies that were compatible with it, and tried to get it activated with the pre-paid card they were selling.

Them: "Credit card>"
Me: "What for?"
Them: "Deposit on the phone."
Me: "It's my phone, all I want is an account."
Them: "Oh, we provide you a phone."
Me: "I don't want a phone, I have a phone. I just want the service."
Them: "We still need a deposit in case you cancel early."
Me: "A deposit on what? Why shouldn't I be able to cancel at any time, you're not risking anything but a bit of plastic and a number in a database."
Them: "Well, if you don't want to give us a credit card, we can take a $200 deposit?"
Me: "Deposit on what?"
Them: "That's for the set up, the phone's free, you don't need to take it..."
Me: "No, that's for the phone, it's not for setup. Setup on my landline phone was only $60 and they tested my wiring, ran a new cable from the pedestal, and installed three phone jacks. I don't believe that it costs you $200 to change one record in a database somewhere and give me fifty cents woth of plastic and silicon."

I didn't get far enough to find out about "early cancellation fees".

Open your books, mister Seidenberg, quit treating your customers as criminals and fools, and then maybe people will quit turning to government because the free enterprise system has failed them... because the cellphone market doesn't resemble anything so much as a parody of a soviet health-care program. Homeopathic levels of service and no accountability...