Missed calls, dead zones, surprise charges. What are cellphone companies doing about them?
By SARMAD ALI
October 23, 2006
Cellphones keep getting fancier. But the old problems never seem to go away.
Today, you can get gadgets that let you browse the Web, locate the nearest restaurant or even watch live TV. But customers are still griping about hassles that have plagued cellphones since day one. Networks often drop your calls, and coverage can be spotty, even in big cities. Then there are the nontechnical issues, like surprise charges, inscrutable bills and poor customer service.
"Despite having poured billions of dollars into their networks and call centers, wireless carriers continue to suffer from consumer frustration with their service, both in complaints to regulators and in customers switching to their competitors," says Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.
The good news is that companies are scrambling to come up with solutions to those longstanding complaints. Cellular carriers are improving their networks, streamlining their bills and improving their customer service. And technology start-ups are pitching in, introducing gadgets that let consumers do everything from make their phones more durable to boost reception in their home.
Customer complaints are a big part of these efforts. But there's another trend at work: As more people get cellphones, carriers are starting to focus on stealing customers from each other rather than recruiting new ones, Mr. Golvin says. And that means offering better service than the competitors do.
Here's a look at how companies are addressing those chronic problems -- as well as some new ones that are cropping up as phones get more advanced.
Just about every cellphone user has a gripe about bad reception and dropped calls. Take Danielle Sucher and her boyfriend, David Turner. When they moved to a Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment in April, they discovered that her Cingular cellphone works throughout the apartment. But his T-Mobile phone -- which works fine elsewhere in the city -- gets reception only when he is sitting on the back window sill.
"He really does curl up on the window sill to use his cellphone," says Ms. Sucher, an attorney. "He also often goes outside to get better reception, but that won't work out so well once winter comes."
Gaps in coverage crop up for a number of reasons. Sometimes cellphone companies can't find an ideal place to put antennas, or residents resist cellular towers as an eyesore. "Everyone wants great coverage for their cell service, but no one wants a cell tower in their backyard," says Michael King, an analyst at research firm Gartner Inc.
In big cities, "buildings can become obstructions that bounce waves all over the place," says Bill Ho, an analyst at Current Analysis Inc.
But most "white spaces," the industry term for coverage gaps, are in rural areas that aren't heavily populated, says Marina Amoroso, an analyst at Yankee Group. Since there are fewer potential customers to supply revenue, carriers often don't build infrastructure there.
The bad news: White spaces aren't going away. "These areas will decrease in size, perhaps by a little bit but it's not likely that carriers are going to cover 100% of the physical terrain of the U.S.," says Ms. Amoroso. "There is just no rational business reason to do so. However, they will do their best to cover close to 100% of the population."
Carriers are trying to improve the coverage picture on a couple of fronts. First, they're trying to close as many white spaces as they can by bulking up their networks. T-Mobile USA Inc., which is owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, says it has added more than 2,000 new cell sites across the country, including New York City. Sprint Nextel Corp. says it's investing approximately $7 billion to improve and maintain both its wireless and wire-line networks this year. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, says it spends an average of $5 billion annually to improve its network.
They're also making deals with roaming partners to lease coverage where it doesn't make sense for them to build towers. For example, Mr. Ho says, Alltel Corp. covers a good swath of territory, including the Great Plains states, that the national carriers don't. So many of them have roaming agreements with Alltel to provide seamless coverage for their customers in these areas.
Improving indoor coverage can be trickier, since it takes a powerful signal to penetrate the walls of a building, says Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, a Washington, D.C., research firm. "If you don't have robust coverage outdoors throughout the suburbs and exurbs, it's even tougher to get a signal in that subscriber's living room," Mr. Greengart says.
Some carriers are pointing their antennas up to blanket high-rise buildings. Others are experimenting with a new technique: letting consumers make calls and receive them over their home Wi-Fi network instead of the regular cellular network. Customers can also boost cellphone signals by installing antennas and repeaters on the roof of their home; some of these devices work in cars as well. This equipment is available from companies such as Wireless Extenders Inc. of Norcross, Ga., Spotwave Wireless Inc., of Ottawa, and AlternativeWireless.com, of San Antonio.
Some companies are also building gadgets to help carriers. TensorComm Inc., of Westminster, Colo., has developed a tool to help cellphone carriers detect the source of interference in wireless networks and improve signal quality and data-transmission rates. The company says it has received interest from several wireless carriers, both in the U.S. and abroad. It expects to have its technology fully deployed by the end of 2007 or early 2008.
Carriers are attacking the coverage problem from another angle, as well. They're acknowledging that their service has gaps and advising customers to make sure they'll be able to get coverage before they sign up.
T-Mobile, for instance, says that it offers a service online and in retail outlets where customers can confirm that there's coverage in their area. Cingular Wireless has launched a similar online service that enables customers to enter their address and see coverage information for their area. And Cingular's retailers use the coverage map to check whether new customers will be off the network.
"Customers are now told at the point of purchase if they are in that situation," says Clay Owen, a spokesman for Cingular, a joint venture of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. "That way, there are no surprises."
Meanwhile, if customers do end up living in an area without coverage, the carriers are heading off complaints by advising them to find another service. Cingular requires that its national rate-plan customers live inside a Cingular-owned coverage area. They must also use more than half their minutes on a Cingular network -- in other words, they can't spend the majority of their calling time roaming. Customers who don't meet the conditions get a number of options, including changing providers or terminating service without penalty.
For instance, Brian Friedman, a mechanical designer, was a Cingular customer even though he lived in an off-network area -- River Falls, Wis. In June, he received a letter from the carrier saying, "If you do not find an alternative carrier or voluntarily cancel service, your account will be subject to cancellation at the end of your billing period after July 10, 2006." Mr. Friedman ended up switching to Verizon.
When Tara Hanney called her cellphone company a year ago to complain about dropped calls, she felt she was given more excuses than answers. The Sprint Nextel representative told her the dropped calls were most likely caused by overloaded cellular towers. Or the problem could be due to the company's recent merger. " 'Point blank, there is nothing we can do,' " Ms. Hanney says the representative told her.
