Things I Can't Get Worked Up About
Dan Gillmor and his trackbackers and commenters are very worked up about remarks made by Verizon's CEO to the San Francisco Chronicle.
A big problem I have here is that we don't have the full context of the remarks.
Rather, we have a reporter writing a story about a meeting with the Hearst newspaper's editorial board.
As I've suggested before with regard to the local Hearst paper, why not just post a transcript to the website?
Now, as for said CEO's alleged upsetting comments, well, he apparently said cities building wi-fi networks is a really dumb idea. That may be ridiculous to computer geeks who want wi-fi access all around town (yeah, wouldn't that be nice during my jury duty wait tomorrow!?), but let's just think about Houston, and the SimDesk debacle of a few years ago. Or the inability to repair potholes in a timely manner for six years (leading to the nickname Mayor Pothole). Or the fact that the light rail's "smart cards" still aren't working. Might a reasonable person be excused for thinking municipal wifi might not be something the city of Houston needs to take on anytime soon? That it might even be a dumb idea?
Then there's this:
Seidenberg, for instance, said people often complain about mobile phone service because they have unrealistic expectations about a wireless service working everywhere. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, is the state's largest mobile phone provider.
"Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" he said. "The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement."
Some people really DO think the things should work in elevators! Or in the bowels of huge buildings. Is it so wrong to point out those sorts of expectations are unrealistic?
Anyway, I found the link via Dwight Silverman, who's appalled. I guess I'm just a contrarian, because I can't get that worked up over it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/05 22:52 | Other | Technorati
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Comments
Gee... let's see... the unrealistic expectations come from Verizon's own commercials where their "Can you hear me now?" guy has walked in and out of elevators in his travels around the whole world.
Posted by Laurence Simon @ 16:19 on 04/19/05
Okay, fair enough. I hadn't seen those commercials, thanks to that zapper button on the ReplayTV.
Fine, the dumbass needs to be more attuned to his company's advertising then! :)
Posted by Kevin @ 16:21 on 04/19/05
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