To all: Here's some food for thought from tele.com, copyrighted of course.
Too Fat? Too Small? TOO BAD!
Dennis Strigl knows the cellular business can be a cold, cruel place. That's just the way he wants it to be.
Interview by Paul Rubin
Paul Rubin is wireless editor for tele.com. His e-mail address is prubin@teledotcom.com.
A lot can happen in 15 years. That's how long it took for cellular
phones to go from being expensive playthings for the rich and famous
to everyday appliances for nearly 50 million cellular subscribers. Even the industry's strongest proponents didn't see that coming. "The rapid growth that we've had in the industry has been pretty much
unexpected," admits Dennis Strigl, president and CEO of Bell Atlantic
Nynex Mobile (BANM, Bedminster, N.J.).
But that doesn't mean the cellular market is a cash cow waiting to be milked by just any cellular provider, Strigl says. In Strigl's view, there simply is no room in the bold new era of wireless communications for the fat and the lazy. There may not be any room for the small, either, as the future's heavy hitters will grow by getting rid of waste and taking advantage of economies of scale.
Those harsh realities suit Strigl just fine. After all, he took just those steps in preparing Bell Atlantic Mobile, the company he previously headed, for its 1995 merger with Nynex Mobile. His overall goal with the merger was to create the company of the future, one lean, mean cellular machine. He's made headway--BANM now boasts some 4.6 million customers in its 111,000-square-mile territory that stretches from Maine to the Carolinas.
(Non-relevant stuff missing.)
There are other changes in the offing as well. The bottom line,
however, is keeping BANM focused on quality coverage and fair pricing. Strigl says that is the only way to prepare for the next 15 years.
Paul Rubin, wireless editor at tele.com, recently spoke with Strigl at BANM's headquarters about cellular fitness, growth, and focus.
Has the cellular industry developed as you expected it to?
Early in the wireless industry, the expectations were much lower than what it really has grown into. For example, I remember a study early on from AT&T that said that the customer base for cellular services would probably be less than a million customers by this time, and of course, we're obviously significantly more than that.
Have your expectations changed recently?
If you look at expectations of late, people talk about penetration rates of the 30-plus percent level. It wouldn't surprise me, in fact, if we see, perhaps as soon as eight, nine, 10 years from now, penetration rates that approach the 50 percent level. There are more and more uses of this service.
What will ultimately take the industry to that point?
I think data transmission. I don't think there is any question about it. With the advent of not only voice but also data, we'll see penetration rates increase significantly. We're really just at the forefront of that explosion right now. It started with public safety applications--police forces, paramedics, and so forth. You'll see many more industrial applications going forward. |
