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To: Eric L who wrote (12291)	6/6/2001 10:41:19 AM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

re: Verizon on Voice Dennis F. Strigl of Verizon: "Wireless phone companies should focus on the fundamentals and avoid hyping data services that are not ready for prime time"" >> Wireless Firms Urged to Focus on Voice Services Knight Ridder/Tribune The Dallas Morning News. June 05 2001 Speaking at an industry trade fair in Atlanta, Verizon Wireless president and chief executive Dennis F. Strigl said the industry risks having government regulate service quality if companies don't take steps to improve basic voice service. "The consequence will be real if we do not get these basics right: high-quality networks, simple price plans and responsive customer service," Strigl said. "The wireless industry could find itself in the cross hairs of regulators who want to regulate our service levels." Strigl's speech at Supercomm 2001 was preceded by an address from Cingular Wireless' chief executive Stephen M. Carter. He called on the audience to "quit thinking of wireless as voice" and focus on improving the data applications. The speeches, while noting the wireless industry's spectacular subscriber growth, also highlighted problems with its fledgling data services. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc., the New York-based local phone company, and Great Britain's Vodafone Group PLC. Cingular, a joint venture between SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio and BellSouth Corp. of Atlanta, was launched in October. There are more than 116 million wireless subscribers in the United States, and Strigl said the industry has plenty of room to grow compared with its peers in Europe, where a majority of people already use mobile phones. But while the industry continues to rack up phone subscribers, its efforts to sell data services have been flat-footed. Few people are connecting to the Internet using wireless devices, and the services available today are often slow and cumbersome. Users don't like accessing tons of information on cell phones' tiny screens and entering data on numerical keypads is frustrating at best. Carter said the industry was quick to tout technologies like Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), a software standard that promised to bring the Internet to cell phones but has become a butt of industry jokes. "WAP failed to impress and that, we believe, is due to unrealistic expectations and overzealous marketing," Carter said, "that led users to believe WAP would be like the Internet on their desktops." The industry's plans for third-generation services that will allow faster data speeds and more capacity have also come under criticism. Some carriers complain that they don't have enough spectrum to introduce the services, and U.S. regulatory agencies haven't determined if and when more airwaves will be auctioned. "We have about half as much (spectrum) as the Europeans and just about half as much as Japan," Carter said. But certain wireless data services have done well. Cingular has had great success with its Blackberry e-mail devices that feature thumb-operated keyboards. They are very popular with businesses whose employees travel a lot. Strigl said the industry may lose sight of more basic, yet important, issues such as service quality and customer care if it spends all its time talking about wireless data. He said wireless calling plans were getting too complicated for average consumers. He also lamented the lack of wireless coverage in many parts of the country and service outages where too many people are trying to use the network. Lawmakers and regulators have often complained about service quality on wireless networks, but so far, they have not mandated standards on the largely unregulated industry. Voice service brings in most of Verizon and Cingular's revenues and will remain the top earner in the foreseeable future, Strigl said. "Voice is king, not data," he said. "It really is still voice after all these years. - Eric -