Don’t let regulators be the champions of customer experience

From Australia to Washington, via London, regulators have recently hit the spotlight with warnings and new rules aimed at clarifying pricing and billing. Regulators around the world are beginning to tighten the rules about clarity and billing practices and in effect are becoming the customers’ champion. This may well provide the incentive for telcos to stay ahead and get to grips with the customer experience before they are forced to do so.

Michael Morgenstern suggests that carriers can do much more than merely simplify and streamline the billing plans – they can create much simpler access. "In my home, everything should transmit over the same coax or fiber cable – my wireline voice, my wireline data, and as carriers get more sophisticated, even my wireless voice and data (through a local femtocell). I'd like this to be provided by my “Home” carrier. And please give me only one piece of equipment that contains the modem, the wireless router, and the femtocell. If you want me to be the happiest about this, give me a single connection, and a single price point. I'm also willing to have an “Away” carrier for my wireless needs, but I still want only one wireless connection, and one price point. This means that my mobile phone (with voice and data) should be able to generate a wireless network for my laptop (and my tablet , Kindle, etc.). With the new 4G networks, speed should be less of an issue here – at least in the short run."