Monday, May 18, 2009

Mobile operators slammed

In case there is any confusion, the releases today by ACMA and Minister Conroy are a significant rebuff for the mobile operators and Communications Alliance.

After months, if not years, of trying to come up with a self-regulatory scheme ACMA has registered the code but added some significant additional regulations. These are elements that could and should have been dealt with by the code.

Hopefully those in the industry who care about the self-regulatory model will reflect on this experience. Ultimately this was a matter inside the telcos of the marketing departments beating the regulatory teams into not constraining their behaviour, only to force the regulators to do it for them.

Hopefully the CEOs will reflect that just maybe they need to change their thinking or risk further trashing the reputation of the industry. They currently com across as distrustful and requiring fir action to control their markting xcesses.

I have long believed that this results in an overall loss of revenue to industry - as it makes customers more cautious than they need to be. It is a simple economic model of consumer behaviour, but one not perceived by people who model the industry from a win/lose framework.

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