Wireless Billing Woes Plague Businesses

Billing problems and complicated service plans are telecom and IT managers’ biggest headaches when it comes to wireless, according to those in the thick of it. Telemanagement canvassed a handful of managers in charge of mobiles and asked how carriers could improve their services. Promised anonymity, our sources said:"One of the biggest issues we have is the reporting. We deal with all carriers and have a real problem getting billing and inventory information electronically and in a consistent format." "We were never (and still are not) able to negotiate a great enough deal that would cause to switch to a single provider. Every time we even suggest that we will mandate this we get quite clear feedback from our community that we better choose the single provider that they are currently using. When becomes a reality things will be a bit easier." "Landline billing and mobility billing don’t have the same bill period, so it’s difficult to align both of them….Plus the payment periods are different. We have less than 30 days to pay our mobility bills and exactly 30 days with our landline." "We would benefit…if the provider would analyze each user’s traffic and suggest the best plan based on this. This report could be provided to us with the electronic copy of the billing." These comments are similar not only for their focus on billing, but also for their theme: the authors seek wireless simplicity, yet they face the inevitable complexity of multiple rates, numerous users and multiple suppliers.But some wonder if simplification is beyond the mobile industry’s reach. Ian Angus, a principal of Angus TeleManagement Group Inc., figures complexity is bred in the sector’s bones."It’s certainly accelerated by the fact that despite promises and promises, none of the big carriers have shown any real interest in dealing with it," he said.In Angus’ estimation, the likes of Bell Mobility, Telus Corp. and Rogers Wireless Communications Inc. spend more time marketing new products than helping customers through the complexities. But it’s not as if the service providers necessarily want to make life difficult for their clients, he added. It’s just that the cards are stacked against any carrier that tries to simplify."The company that did try to do that was Fido," Angus explained. "They came in with per-second billing. It was supposed to be clean and simple. They did shake up the market for a while. "But they’re gone," he continued, referencing Rogers’ acquisition of Fido in 2004. Although Fido still exists by name, many industry observers argue that it’s a shell of its former independent self."You can talk about it all you want, but the moment Bell or Rogers drop their prices to a penny a minute and offer a special deal if you happen to live north of Churchill and only make calls on alternate Tuesdays, somebody else is going to want another more complex plan," Angus said. "An announcement, ‘I’m going to simplify’ is largely an announcement that ‘I’m going to lose market share.’"Sophistication Trumps SimplicityIn that light, perhaps it’s no surprise that wireless carriers have been trying to impress customers with sophistication instead of simplicity. Consider Bell’s new downtown Toronto store. It offers advice from the carrier’s mobile experts on integrating wireless into a business environment. "We are not just offering a new store, but a new level of service," said Neeraj Sharma, Bell’s VP, corporate stores, in a press release. According to Jim Jaques, senior VP of Bell Mobility, the wireless provider’s greatest asset in the battle against complexity is the personal touch."The solution always comes back to the service representative, whether it’s face to face or over the phone," he said in an interview. "We believe the customer knows that their best source of information is to call us."Bell isn’t the only carrier making changes. In Burnaby BC, Telus has rolled its mobile arm into its corporate core, so ostensibly operations that the landline side performs well – treating business customers as unique from consumers, for instance – will be adopted by the wireless side. Rogers raised the broadband bar in November, unveiling its High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network in the Golden Horseshoe area of southern Ontario. And in December the carrier cross-pollinated technologies from Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) and Nokia Corp. via BlackBerry Connect, a service that brings the back-end functions of RIM’s popular BlackBerry to Nokia’s E62 handset. Now users who like BlackBerry functionality have another end-point option.But as service providers tempt customers with new wares, another group benefits from the resulting confusion. According to John Tyl, president of Smart Thought Technologies Inc. in Burlington ON, his company is doing well. "Every year we’ve been doubling our revenue," he said of the three-year-old firm.Smart Thought helps businesses understand how much they spend on wireless, with an eye to helping customers whittle the costs down. "The clients have multiple carriers, multiple accounts, multiple rate plans," Tyl said.It’s a good situation for Smart Thought. But it also indicates just how complicated the wireless business is for both customers and service providers.

Wireless Billing Woes Plague Businesses

News | February 1, 2007

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