Carriers these days are raving about their growing data revenues, but are they turning a profit on those numbers? It’s easy to associate one with the other, but it’s not always the case. If we’re to believe this study — and all studies should be viewed with a skeptical eye — then mobile broadband customers cost 200 percent more to support than traditional mobile customers. So while data revenue grows, profits do not grow proportionally because of the added support costs. Could this cause carriers to scale back their efforts to grow the wireless data market?
Probably not, though perhaps this is why many carriers are offering subsidized netbooks along with their mobile broadband services. The problem, after all, was mostly with broadband modems used with laptops. These had average support call times of 28 minutes, while the average for your standard mobile device is about 10 minutes. These laptop cards accounted for 13 of the 20 lowest-ranked devices.
“Traditional wireless products are largely in the control of the network operator; it’s their SIM card, they sold the handset and it’s attached to their network. Mobile broadband introduces the need to manage a wireless product on a third-party device such as a laptop. You have to contend with hardware performance and conflicts, driver incompatibility and buggy software. Diagnosis and fault resolution therefore becomes more complex, negatively impacting support times. Add to this the fact that many products have not been adequately tested prior to launch, and the result is an expensive burden on existing support infrastructures,” explains David Ffoulkes-Jones, CEO of WDSGlobal.
The key, it seems, will be to develop diagnostic software which can run along with the broadband modem. This way subscribers will have something they can read to customer service reps, thereby reducing call time. Given the vast selection of laptops out there that might not be an easy proposition, but it might be the only way to get those support times down.
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