A Telecom Auditing Eye for the 3G iPhone Guy

June 26, 2008 By 4 Comments

Let’s face it: As it currently stands, Apple’s iPhone gets by on being a stylish status symbol as much as it does on actual features. You can’t beat Apple’s aesthetics or interface design. But behind the hype, the iPhone’s appeal has been limited by its high price and the US’ chaotic business models and wireless network standards, which make some features frustratingly slow or expensive. Even though iPhones are a hot consumer product, few businesses opted for fleets of them. One might sneak into a corporate plan as an executive toy, but that’s about it.

At least, that was before the 3G iPhone was announced, promising twice the capacity at half the up-front price.

The 3G has lots of toys too, but where it gets interesting from the telecom expense management perspective is how it affects a mobile data market that was virtually synonymous with the Blackberry. AT&T promises “business-class” email and data capabilities for iPhone customers. This refers to “push” email technology that maintains a constant connection to facilitate faster updates. As the old .Mac service transforms into MobileMe, clients will benefit from cross-platform, synchronized push services that give you access to up to date email and other info from your computer, phone and anything else in your data “cloud.”

This PDF represents AT&T’s hard sell to business clients. Between the new services, subsidized price drop and the unlimited data plan Apple arranges for iPhone subscribers, it might be time to reconsider the iPhone as a cost effective (if easily distracting, thanks to iTunes and true web browsing) business device. There’s one big catch, though: Exclusivity.

Any telecom audit professional will tell you that inflexibility equals higher expenses. It’s always been a big cellular expense management challenge in SIM-locked North America. The 3G iPhone’s exclusive tie to AT&T in the US (and Rogers in Canada) means that beyond Apple’s demands for an unlimited data package, providers can put a little extra fat on their fees, like the $10/month increase that AT&T seems they’ll be adding to data costs. You might want to hold on to your less-glamorous Blackberries after all.

Filed Under: Cellular Expense Management, Cost Reduction, Telecom Audit Tagged With: , , , ,

More Telecom Expense Management Lingo

June 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Last time around I told you about a bunch of common cell phone plan-related slang and abbreviations. This time around, let’s look at some other terms in general (mobile and landline) telecom expense management. We use some of them as tracking codes for our Management and Reporting Software.

Here goes:

2G: Second generation mobile device that uses digital signals instead of analog signals of earlier, first generation phones.

2.5G: A 2G phone with additional data transfer capabilities like true (instead of mobile format) internet. The first Apple iPhone is an example of a 2.5G phone — the second claims full 3G status.

3G: Third generation mobile devices. These can handle true broadband-rate data transfer, allowing services such as video calling.

ACO: Additional call offering. An ISDN feature that allows calls to one number to be routed to multiple phones. Used to handle incoming calls in an office.

BVM: Basic Voicemail

CDR: Call Detail Recording – an automated database element used to generate billing. CDR errors or CRD interpretation errors will cause billing errors.CID: Caller ID

EVM or AVM: Enhanced Voicemail

EW or E&W: Evenings and Weekends, in the context of long distance or cellular services.

ISDN: Integrated Digital Service Network. A network capable of providing multiple telecom transmission services (including voice, video and internet) simultaneously.

TEXT, TXT: Text messaging.

Mob, Mobi, WWW: Mobile Internet. 2G Internet was limited to specially configured mobile-friendly sites due to screen and bandwidth limitations, but newer phones display Internet content in the same way as standard computers.

DB: Detailed Billing. This is often available on request and is a prerequisite for competent telecom auditing.

EMSG: Email Messaging.

FIM or FIMF: First Incoming Minute Free.

LDS: Long distance savings/saver.

M2M: Free calling between members (of a company/organization) – M2MLD includes free long distance between members.

POTS: Plain Old Telephone Service. Basic phone services.

TV: Television streaming.

VOICENET: Voice to Email.

Filed Under: Cellular Expense Management, Communications Management Software, Telecom Expense Management Tagged With: , , , ,

A Customer Service Snapshot

June 13, 2008 By 1 Comment

Let me tell you what I do all day! While I do work in direct telecom expense management by providing no-risk introductory telecom cost audits, that’s only part of what we do here at GILL Technologies. Ongoing client care is a major focus for us. We aim to save people money and hassle. This business is about long-term client satisfaction. We earn it by providing a level of support that even large business clients can’t get for themselves.

Service interruptions are the most common support calls we get. It’s pretty simple: The client’s phones are down! This spells paralysis for most businesses, so it’s an issue people want to take care of right away. Unfortunately, if you don’t have any help, the phone company’s probably going to make you wait. One of your employees is going to get on the phone, wait through the support queue and listen to a first tier agent from the phone company go through his script. By the end of it you might get a vague promise that someone will fix it – sooner or later.

The reality is that in this situation, even a big company isn’t much better off than an individual when it comes to getting fast, effective service, so even if you’ve never had to get a hold of the phone company for your business, you’ve probably done it at home. The conditions are pretty much the same: They suck.

The great thing about having GILL Technologies – and me! – on your side is that you never have to waste time on hold again. The other day, a client called me about the kind of service interruption I’m talking about. I’m not at the other end of a queue, so he didn’t have to wait. (He didn’t have to deal with the phone company at all) He explained the problem and I got to work. I usually start by calling a front line agent myself, but since I have more experience with them I can usually direct service a bit more effectively than the average office worker.

It doesn’t end there, though. I give standard support 90 minutes to resolve this kind of issue. After that, I call on our own connections. We have dealer level access to all major carriers, so when I make my next call (or email, through our contacts list), I’ll escalate my support ticket immediately. Up at the next tier, things get done a lot faster. Experience helps here, too. The Tier 2 (or higher) agent and I both have experience with common service issues. That means I can describe the problem a little more clearly than by just saying, “The phone’s not working!” and he knows I’m not going to sit around and wait until it’s convenient for them.

That way, a problem that might spell an overnight outage or longer with anyone else turns into a momentary interruption. Any downtime is too much, but from my perspective, more than an hour is ludicrous. Too many customer service systems try to teach clients to lower their expectations, but since I want to keep my clients happy for years on end, I beg to differ.

About the Author: Tara Hind is Telecom Client Care customer service representative at GILL Technologies.

Filed Under: Mobile Device Management Tagged With: , ,

Cellular Expense Management Lingo

June 6, 2008 By 2 Comments

Cell phone plans are complicated for a number of reasons. One is the technology, which isn’t just driven my miniaturization and power, but by a shifting set of global standards that let us talk to each other and determine how we do it. Another reason is that standard telecom company practices aren’t always pretty. Most people don’t know, for instance, that phone companies deliberately hamstring flexible standards that are supposed to help users. If you haven’t read telecom expense management literature, you might not even know if it was possible to switch carriers as easily as SIM technology should allow.

What’s SIM? What else should you know? Here are a bunch of terms that people use in the TEM business.

BAN: Business Account Number

CTN: Cellular Telephone Number

GSM: Short for “Global System for Mobile communications.” This is the most popular international mobile standard.

IMEI: International Mobile Equipment Identity. This is international serial number identifies a mobile device, but not necessarily its user.

IMSI: International Mobile Subscriber Identity. This unique number identifies a GSM network mobile subscriber. The IMSI number is stored on his or her SIM.

LD: Long Distance

OOB: “Out of Bucket.” Minutes used over those allotted by your cell phone plan.

Porting: Moving a phone from one carrier to another. The new carrier must agree to a TOR.

Pre-HUP: Upgrading a phone before being eligible to do so under a cell phone plan. Doing so incurs an additional fee.

Roaming: Receiving cellular services outside of the local area where the phone was registered.

SIM (or SIM Card): Subscriber Identity Module. This is a removable card that contains a user’s subscription information (including ISMI) and personal data. It can be swapped from phone to phone so that a user can easily switch phones. SIM Locking restricts swapping.

SIM Lock: A restriction on some GSM phones that only allows them to accept SIM cards from certain countries or networks. In North America, most new phones on extended plans are SIM Locked.

System Access Fee: A basic administrative cost that all carriers charge, regardless of the phone or service offered.

TOR: Transit of Responsibility, where one carrier agrees to take over another’s service agreement.

Filed Under: Cellular Expense Management, Cost Reduction, Telecom Expense Management Tagged With: , , ,