US mobile network carriers are crippling the promise of J2ME MIDP

US mobile network carriers are probably the most short sighted and narrow minded corporations running networks in the world. They are sold a most valuable public common asset, bandwidth, and are given so many protections in return for their billions. Then they so jealously horde that common asset you could imagine them playing the role of Smeagol in Lord of the Rings. "Precious bandwidth, must have precious..." they whine at every opportunity.

To be honest I think they deserve what they get when technologies like WiMax and VoIP and their equivalents equivalent take a huge chunk from their revenue stream. Carriers should be required to get completely out of the voice business and manage their licensed bandwidth as a public wireless network asset in an open and fair way.

So why exactly am I in a huff and ranting about this right now?

Well its because I've discovered that carriers are restricting what J2ME MIDP apps deployed on phones connected to their networks can and can't do. J2ME MIDP2.0 which is supported on the latest J2ME phones opens up some very useful new ways to use the network via TCP sockets and datagrams. This means that your closed mobile network access device aka "the phone" is now an open platform for deploying networked applications. Or is it?

It turns out that carriers in the US are requiring that any application accessing those network APIs from Java must be digitally signed by the carrier who's network it is accessing. This means not only does the carrier have absolute control over what applications are on what phones in its network, it also means that developers no longer have application portability because each carrier requires a different certificate and has a lengthy process to get that certificate - if you can get it at all.

I previously encountered this same problem in the early days of WAP and development of WML based mobile content sites. Phone companies relentless pushed WAP as the greatest thing since Al Gore invented the internet. In the US phone companies adopted proprietary incompatible versions of WAP (based on Phone.com's HDML),prevented users from setting their own "home page" for the browser, and if you wanted your WAP site to appear anywhere on the phones hardwired home page it required extensive testing and monitoring by the carrier and adoption of certain restricted technologies that weren't necessarily the best.

In the end WAP was a flop and has largely faded into obscurity. However one legacy of phone companies over zealous promotion of WAP is that most phones still only incorporate a "Web browser" that is actually a WAP Based WML2.0 compatible browser. As a consequence my phone with 5Mb of storage and 1Mb of heap still can't even browse a web page with more than 1.5k of content on it. Doh!

Why do carriers so jealously guard access to phones on their networks? Well one explanation, and that usually proffered by carriers, is that "we don't want just any application jamming up our networks". Basically they are saying they don't want phones on their network to become bandwidth hogs, vectors for various mobile viruses or to be running mobile equivalents of Napster.

The problem with this argument is that they still retain control over how much bandwidth phones can use on their networks. Also all phones require user intervention to install an application and for any app to access the network. Finally the APIs we're talking about do not allow apps to act as a server, and in any case the IP addresses of phones on the network are not public IPs and hence carriers still have absolute control about what is going on within their network.

The real reason carriers are insisting on stunting the growth of J2ME as a viable mobile development platform is plain and simply dollars. By restricting what useful non-game application can run on phones in their network they can treat the phone as a precious resource that third parties must pay dollars to get access to. They can also sign exclusivity agreements with various companies and charge even more dollars to them.

For example on T-Mobile your phone is pre-loaded with an AOL Instant Messenger client - a Yahoo IM client for J2ME exists which I could run, but guess what, its not available on T-Mobile. There is no reason why that client couldn't run on T-Mobile, its just that T-Mobile has almost certainly got an exclusivity agreement with AOL to keep Yahoo out. Its also very suspicious that when I try to access the Yahoo WAP site from my T-Mobile phone I am subject to numerous and repeated network failures which happen on no other network or device that I've tried. Isn't that rather interesting...

I think that Sun should be telling carriers to lay off their restrictive practices and stunting of the J2ME platform. Carriers should realize that a free and open platform is beneficial to all and that the temporary gain to them from exclusive licensing agreements will be a very short term one. The long term view should be to create a healthy and diverse community of app developers for J2ME on mobile devices that is beneficial to all developers and consumers alike. That way they will see popularity such as Palm enjoyed by not only encouraging 3rd party development, but making it a key feature of the whole Palm experience.

Comcast solves the customer complains problem

Comcast announced today that by 2006 it plans to offer VoIP to more than 40 million households.

This is big, this is huge. It means Comcast has finally figured out a way to solve the customer complaints problem: just switch them all over to voice over IP phone service using the Comcast cable connection as the IP "ring tone". Then when their cable goes out customers wont be able to call to complain.

Customer retention

While I was over at PhoneScoop.com I looked at their user forum to see if anyone else had bitched about 1800Mobiles.com I noticed then a post by someone who clearly worked for a cellular carrier and was complaining about customer who phone to get a better deal on their service. They reasoned that since no one tries this in WalMart so why do they have to put up with cheap customers trying to get a deal day-in and day-out?

Okay, I'll give you two good reasons why people do this and why phone companies should listen.

The first reason is that in the USA calling service providers to get a deal is standard practice. You do it with your landline company and you're a fool not to because their standard rates are exhorbitant. You do it with your credit card company and they give you a deal. You do it with your bank to get fees waived, etc. etc. So why not do it with your cellular carrier?

The second rason is that almost everyone knows someone or is someone, that called to get a deal and was told "No". That person then called and said "I have new phone with XYZ and I want to disconnect my service". At that point you are flipped to the "customer retention department" and offered all kinds of deals to stay. I have one friend who got offered twice the normal anytime minutes as normal, a new phone for almost free AND got four months of *free* service to think about it. Literally they called him every month for three months and asked him to reconsider and wouldn't stop his service. He ended up giving his old phone to a friend to use until they finally disconnected it. So who wouldn't try asking for a better deal? You're almost stupid not to.

Both these scenarios are a consequence of a well know fact - its costs service companies a very significant amount of money to acquire a new customer, and those costs are increasing especially in the cellular business. Current estimates are $300 per customer and rising. That's why you get a hugely discounted phone and that's why carriers did everything they possibly could to stop number portability.

So a customer is actually doing carriers a favor to offer them a chance to avoid paying another $300 to acquire a new customer to replace them and keep their revenue up. The last thing a carrier should do is just tell them to get lost because you know what, they will.

Regular stores like WalMart don't spend anything like the amount service companies do to acquire companies. Having a more physical prescence they often have a more captive market of customers. Also people shop for their daily needs at multiple stores and aren't stuck in a service agreement. Imagine if WalMart wanted you to sign a one or two year agreement to shop only at their store, with a $200 early termination fee? Are you kidding that would never work!

Big retail stores prefer schemes like discount cards and coupons to reward their customers. These actually cost those stores quite a bit to operate but are more effective. Also instead of on-request discounts they have have frequent sales and specials. The wise customer waits for the next sale which stores will frequently tell you about if you ask.

Small retail stores typically don't spend a lot on advertising and discount schemes. Their margins and volume is just not high enough. But they will give discounts to loyal customers and valuable customers. Often this happens without the customer even asking and that's the best way. Such a customer truely knows they are valued, and doesn't feel like they are begging for something, and the retailer doesn't feel like they are on the spot if they really can't afford to give a discount.

Think of a discount like getting a raise at work. If you get given one without asking that's great - you were appreciated, someone was doing their job and noticed and you got rewarded. If you were appreciated then you have to ask then someone wasn't doing their job, and you feel unappreciated for having to ask. If you're not appreciated and you get a no then you'll be disgruntled and likely as not move on.

So to summarize, your customer who asks for a discount is not necessarily a tight wad. Quite likely they are just giving you a chance to show that you value their custom and indicating that probably you are neglecting a loyal customer. Often times, even small discount or deal is more than enough to make them happy. Otherwise by all means turn them down, if you're not making money from them then you're a fool not to. But do it with a smile and expect them to go elsewhere for the very best deal, because they can and will. That's how a free-market works.

"Cell hell", "Caveat Emptor!", or "1800Mobiles sucks"?

I couldn't decide on the title for this post. But its a tale of woe and misfortune whatever I call it.

Part of acquiring a product is the purchasing process and that deserves a review as well, especially if it goes wrong. These days I rarely walk into a store and purchase something without a lot of research and selection of where I'm buying. Unless I really absolutely need something today I'll almost always consider waiting a few days to order it online especially if there is a decent price differential. However I also like to choose a reasonably well known and reputable store and until now I've done business with a whole bunch of them very successfully and never had a single problem.

Unfortuntately this time, when ordering a new Motorola V300 phone I broke my golden rule and failed to look for merchant reviews first, now I really wish I'd checked Epinions or some other such place. My mistake all started when I followed a link from Phonescoop.com which is a very good and useful phone selection and review site. I made the mistake of quality by association, I assumed since Phonescoop is good then they would pick good vendors to advertise on their site.

Now what do they say about assumption? Yes, that's right folks, assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.

So here is my sorry tale, so far, of my fuck up...

I picked 1800mobiles because it was $30 cheaper than Amazon and they had the data CD and cable I wanted available for order. I figured I'd do everything at once and save $30 which pays the T-mobile activation fee. Now I also see that Buy.com has both the phone and data cable and also has the same price. Doh.

I ordered my phone with T-Mobile service and porting to Sprint on Tuesday 27th. The site said orders received after 3:30pm EST would be considered for shipment the next day so I thought I should hear from them on Wednesday. Even though they charged my card on the Tuesday, two days later on Thursday I've heard nothing. So I call them up.

The first thing I notice is the customer service person is clearly Indian. Now I know quite a lot of Indian people, quite a few are good friends, so even with all the ho-ha about outsourcing right I just think to myself "Oh, they have outsourced customer service". Of course I may be wrong, I could just happen to be talking to someone who is Indian who is in the USA, goodness knows, like Brits there are plenty living in the USA. Also her English is excellent, impecable I'd say, and we have no communication problems at all. However you could say that since I've known and been listening to Indian people pretty much all my life I have an easier time understanding even a strong Indian accent than I do someone from the deep South of the USA.

Anyway, the customer service person helpfully confirms all my details and checks my order. She comes back and tells me I had ordered a plan that was a special offer and isn't available any more. At this point I'm somewhat anoyed at them that they didn't call me on Wednesday as they could have done. But I'm also annoyed at myself I actually suspected the service plan wasn't available anymore and I was hoping I'd got a deal by accident. Okay, so strike that one off to me being a cheapskate. I select a different plan and wait...

On Friday lunch time I go to make a call on my Sprint phone and find its not working. "Great" I think, that means my number has been ported and they'll ship today. So I call up later on Friday (calll two) and they say my phone is still in the activation department awaiting activation. Its a different person this time, but still an Indian accent so by this time I'm about 75% certain their customer service is outsourced. I tell the person I've already had my Sprint service disconnected so it must have been ported already. Right they say, "its awaiting activation". No I say, you can't port a number to a non-activated phone, that's not the way it works, you activate the phone and then they port. I know this because I had called T-Mobile on the Tuesday I ordered to make sure it could be ported. That means my phone doesn't go dead until the new T-Mobile service is active and my number is ported or in the middle of porting. No they say, "its being activated and as soon as its activated we'll ship it, should be today".

Okay, I'm losing confidence now but put it down to bad luck and kick myself for not not calling on Wednesday because now its Friday and there's no chance the phone will get shipped until Monday which means no phone until Wedesday which means five or more days without mobile service.

Monday arrives and I check the 1800Mobile.com web site in the afternoon. It still says my phone is awaiting activation. So I call again (call three) and yet another guy answers, this time its Jake, and yes, another Indian accent. I actually worked with an Indian guy called Jake before, a really great guy but I'm sure he's not doing customer service now, at least I hope not. Anyway, Jake tells me my number hasn't been ported yet, and this process takes from 3 hours to 10 days and rest assured as soon as its done they'll send me and email to notify me of shipping.

So I still write it off as bad luck, I'm the 1% that gets the really long porting time due to some screw up. At the back of my mind I think I should maybe called T-Mobile and ask them. But I don't...

Tuesday arrives and I call 1800Mobiles first thing (call four) and notice on their voice menu they have an option to check your WLNP porting status. So I select this and bingo, I get some chirpy guy with an American accent. The guy says within 10 seconds, "Oh yes your phone is here, its activated, ported and ready to ship, you'll have it by Friday". Great I think. Eureka. Seven days without mobile service but ultimately not a disaster.

At 6pm on Tuesday I check my email - no notification that the phone shipped. Fuck. So I call them up - call five.

Its too late for the WLNP number this time so I have to speak to customer service again. This time its Jake again, I remember him and he remembers me. He looks up my order and checks on it and tell me in a somewhat patronizing tone that "As I told you yesterday sir, your phone is in the activation department and it takes up to ten days to activate". So I tell Jake that I called this morning and had been told it was activated already and should have shipped today. He give me the same story again. Its awaiting activation, just be patient. At this point I seriously believe that my phone was actually activated and ported on Friday but something's screwed up and that it hasn't shipped. I tell Jake that and ask if maybe he can fix the problem or at least find out. He tells me the same thing over again.

So Jake's customer service training kicks in and he starts trying to calm me down since I must be getting somewhat irritated. However telling me the same thing four times over doesn't help any more than it does three time over and our convesation is quickly boiling down to a "I said... you said" argument that was going nowhere. At that point I decide to give up and hang up.

The conclusion I've come to is that since their customer service is outsourced overseas they really have no ability to do anything except take orders and tell you the order status that on their website. Since they really have nothing to do with 1800Mobiles (who is actually just another name for A1Wireless) my best bet is to talk to the porting information guy I spoke to and try to get the name of a real person.

So its now over one week since I ordered, one week since my credit card was charged, five days with no cellphone service and my phone isn't even in the mail yet. Tomorrow first thing I'm on a mission to track down someone at 1800Mobiles who knows what the heck is going on and I'm going to demand overnight delivery so I can get my phone before next week because if it doesn't ship this Wednesday that's the earliest I'll see it. And you know what? T-Mobile is probably already billing me for my service... I'm going to give them a call too and I'm going to complain to Phonescoop.com

In short, next time check the merchant reviews and be ready to pay a little extra to order with a reputable merchant.

I'll update this posting if and when I get my phone. From the looks of the other reviews it seems as though I may get screwed on the rebates and have a lot of trouble canceling the order.

Do I feel lucky? Not any more...