Mark Kelley Leaps Onto BigTalk
wirelessweek.com
MARCH 20, 2002
Mark Kelley, Leap Wireless International Inc.'s chief technology
officer, was featured on Tuesday's BigTalk online discussion.
Kelley answered questions about the future technical direction of
the carrier, a winner of Wireless Week's fifth annual Excellence
Awards. Following is an edited version of that discussion.
Q: Why does Leap support local number portability when other
wireless companies don't?
Kelley: We look at the business from the consumer standpoint. Our
customers have asked us about this over the years, and it made
sense to us that folks would want to switch carriers the way they
switch long-distance and wireline service. Also, we noticed that
outside the U.S. where service is more saturated, number
portability was popular. We believe this is the future.
Q: Leap claims that it is competing with landline providers. What
are the steps Leap needs to take or has taken to encourage
landline replacement for residential and small business
consumers? Realistically, is the coverage and quality of service
inside buildings comparable to landline service inside buildings?
Kelley: Well, our support of number portability is a good example.
[Number portability] is especially important for business customers. We also focus on trying to provide
in-building coverage in our markets since our service is used in all areas of our subscriber s lives. Of
course, you cannot have perfect in-building coverage everywhere, and office buildings with special
windows and steel frame construction are harder to penetrate than homes. Our predictions and tests
are focused to achieve such coverage in an economically feasible manner.
Q: A handful of wireless operators have recently announced that they would soon offer interoperable
multicarrier SMS messaging. How does this work and who are the software vendors?
Kelley: In the beginning of the landline telephone era there were multiple phone companies without
full interoperability on the voice side. That did not last long, and growth of any communication system
will suffer when full interoperability does not exist. That s why Leap fully supports this feature. It s not
all that complicated. A centralized server contains links to other carriers directories and can forward
the message across platforms. There are several great third-party solutions that can accomplish this.
Q: What is Leap doing to support the youth market?
Kelley: The youth market is the single biggest opportunity for carriers to increase non-voice use.
Young adults and teens seek value and fun with their service. Our flat-rate service, without the need
for credit checks and contracts, is ideal for this group. We look at our service as pay in advance
rather than a prepaid account since it is the thriftiest service available as opposed to most prepaid
pricing. We sell handsets that allow for face-plate changes and lots of our customers have fun with
this. You will see more from Leap this year for this segment!
Q: What s Leap announcing at CTIA?
Kelley: A few key items. First, we are thrilled that CTIA has recognized that Live, work and play is
the key to the mobile lifestyle and established this as the theme this year. It has been our theme for
three years since we first launched our Cricket service. We are also thrilled to have won the Wireless
Week Carrier of the Year award. We have announced that we will be joining other carriers in their
rollout of interoperability with messaging. Other than that, our message is that we are on track to meet
our goals for this year: nearly double our customer base to 2 million subs, EBITDA positive in Q4 and
our 1XRTT rollout in certain markets.
Q: What s Leap's strategy for 2002?
Kelley: Life after launch! We are going to focus on growing our Cricket business, executing on our
40-market plan and continuing to find every opportunity to enhance our cost-leadership position in the
industry. We are deploying CDMA2000 1XRTT to increase our voice capacity and exploring how best
to offer wireless data services that are fun...and comfortable! |
