Cutting the Bell Cord
Later today, Bell is scheduled to disconnect my residential phone service. While many from the Millennial Generation might not even give it a second thought, for me, the disconnection is a big deal and I'm still a little apprehensive. After all, the traditional analogue phone service has been with me, in every house I've lived in, for my entire life.
When it comes to service reliability, it's hard to beat Canadian residential phone service. When we pick up the phone receiver we know we will hear dialtone. Even during power outages, most of the time, the phone service works just fine, even if the outage lasts for days. Same can be said for voice quality. So when it comes to service quality and availability the bar is very high.
However, there has been very little in the way of service innovation. I do remember the transition from rotary dial to touch tone. That was an improvement in the user interface but it was done to benefit the telcos, not the consumers. And, if I remember correctly we had to pay more for the privilege. Years later I got rid of my answering machine. Having voicemail service in the cloud was certainly an improvement but once again, I had to fork out a few extra dollars for the service enhancement. Over the years, other features were introduced such as Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Block, Call Return, and a few others. Each of them involved an additional subscription fee.
Over the course of the past 10 years, IP-based telephony services have enabled significant advances that have led to compelling new features and functionality. As a result business users, and subscribers to Internet Telephony Service Providers, now benefit from services such as Unified Messaging, Simultaneous Ring, Softphones, Visual Voicemail and many others. Meanwhile, meaningful innovation in residential phone services have been non-existent. Sure, Bell recently introduced a few new features such as voicemail to email, but once again, there is an additional subscription fee.
As a consumer, the only effective means available to express my dissatisfaction with the lack of innovation and value, is to discontinue my subscription. So today is the day. Reservations, about service reliability persist, but I am confident that my Internet Telephony Service will provide a much richer user experience at a significantly lower cost. And, with cell phone service as a backup, my service reliability concerns are satisfied.
Canadian telephone companies have already lost more that a million subscribers to their competitors. Without true innovation, the trend will continue.
Stumble It!
When it comes to service reliability, it's hard to beat Canadian residential phone service. When we pick up the phone receiver we know we will hear dialtone. Even during power outages, most of the time, the phone service works just fine, even if the outage lasts for days. Same can be said for voice quality. So when it comes to service quality and availability the bar is very high.
However, there has been very little in the way of service innovation. I do remember the transition from rotary dial to touch tone. That was an improvement in the user interface but it was done to benefit the telcos, not the consumers. And, if I remember correctly we had to pay more for the privilege. Years later I got rid of my answering machine. Having voicemail service in the cloud was certainly an improvement but once again, I had to fork out a few extra dollars for the service enhancement. Over the years, other features were introduced such as Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Block, Call Return, and a few others. Each of them involved an additional subscription fee.
Over the course of the past 10 years, IP-based telephony services have enabled significant advances that have led to compelling new features and functionality. As a result business users, and subscribers to Internet Telephony Service Providers, now benefit from services such as Unified Messaging, Simultaneous Ring, Softphones, Visual Voicemail and many others. Meanwhile, meaningful innovation in residential phone services have been non-existent. Sure, Bell recently introduced a few new features such as voicemail to email, but once again, there is an additional subscription fee.
As a consumer, the only effective means available to express my dissatisfaction with the lack of innovation and value, is to discontinue my subscription. So today is the day. Reservations, about service reliability persist, but I am confident that my Internet Telephony Service will provide a much richer user experience at a significantly lower cost. And, with cell phone service as a backup, my service reliability concerns are satisfied.
Canadian telephone companies have already lost more that a million subscribers to their competitors. Without true innovation, the trend will continue.
Stumble It!
