Why I Hate My Cell Phone (cont'd)

As some major carriers are aggressively advertising their networks' reliability, some service providers have realized that a superior perception of reliability provides a real competitive advantage. Network reliability is well on its way to being considered as important as nationwide coverage and customer service as a differentiator among carriers, and the JD Power and Consumer Reports surveys show that some carriers are perceived to be far better than others. They also show that some parts of the country are considered better than others. As a result, several questions come to mind, including:

• Why do some users report very good service and others report terrible service?
• Can users do anything to improve their service?
• What should mobile operators and their technology vendors do to improve subscribers' experience and perception of quality?

That's No Phone, That's a Two-Way Radio

It is important to remember that a cell phone is not really a phone. It is a two-way radio connected to the phone system. From a "what can go wrong" point of view this means that in addition to whatever can affect the phone system's reliability, anything that can go wrong in a two-way radio system affects reliability too. And a lot that can go wrong in a radio system, as every mobile customer seems to experience first hand.

Service providers want to provide the best service they can everywhere within their advertised coverage footprint. Unfortunately, a lot of problems stand between them and that goal. New cell sites are expensive, and it is sometimes difficult to get zoning approval to build them. New technologies such as email, photo and video transmission that demand lots of bandwidth compete with voice calls for available capacity.

New technologies such as EDGE and 3G provide exciting new features and capabilities, but little that will increase a subscriber's perceived network reliability. Worse, history shows that newly deployed technologies often affect the reliability of existing services adversely until providers learn how to operate them efficiently. In fact, stories about new technologies like prepaid service and GPRS performing badly and also degrading existing voice services are common.

More Towers is Not Usually the Answer

Many people, including most of the popular press and industry analysts, will say that the problem is that there are too few towers. They suggest operators need more money and easier zoning approvals. But most of the time more money for more towers will not solve the overall problem. A conversation that occurred a few years ago between a CEO of a regional wireless provider and his Vice President of Engineering illustrates this point. The CEO took his VP out to the parking lot, pointed to a working tower at the other end and asked, "I can see my tower from here, so why can't I make a phone call from here?"

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