Verizon Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, suspicion of ulterior motives arose upon an overly emphatic opposition. Since all the world’s indeed a stage, Verizon Wireless’s star actor Dennis Strigl is now making it obvious that their motivation to rush Wireless Local Number Portability is not for the public interest, but for profit. Not to be critical – shareholder value should be the goal of VZW. Yet while industry analysts agree that Verizon will be market share beneficiary when WLNP is mandated, Verizon has acted like it is only motivated by what’s best for America. The more they snitch on the other telcos for heel-dragging, and the more they over-act benevolent, the more manipulative they seem. The linked article discusses some barriers to churn that other wireless carriers want to impose on consumers. Verizon dismisses them with more overacting than Don Knotts, but I offer my take: 1) A porting fee to be charged when a customer switches away. This is bogus, since all customers benefit from WLNP. Increased competition results in better service and lower prices for customers who stay, and those who switch. The costs should be swallowed by the carrier, or applied evenly to all subscribers. 2) Restricted porting hours. Whaa? Bogus, give customers a method of switching to a new carrier any time, any place. 3) Account closure. This is one very legit claim carriers make. Carriers will incur costs when they port a customer to another carrier, and they do not want to incur the additional cost until customers are fully paid up on their bills. Without this requirement, it would be like a customer eating food at a restaurant, not paying the bill, but demanding that the restaurant provide a free taxi ride home.
