I had some random thoughts running through my mind over the course of my drive back from Montreal last weekend. Let me tie together a few thoughts for you.

1. Alec Saunders and I had bantered last month over the issue of open access – facilitating the use of any device, any application over a network;
2. AT&T; launched a new parental control service for managing the use and cost of kids’ mobile devices;
3. Through the weekend, I wrote about my frustrations with a wireless carrier’s customer service IVR;
4. And, earlier in the week, I wrote about the availability of unlocked phones.

What link is there between these thoughts?

Perhaps it is the issue of controlling the cost of customer service.

How does a wireless carrier provide customer support for phones that aren’t part of their authorized list? When a customer buys an unlocked device on eBay and tries to activate a new application, where will they turn for help? I’m going to guess that many will call their carrier. How will the carrier support these customers?

ISPs have similar, but different challenges, supporting a wide range of IP enabled devices, but with fewer operating systems and user interfaces to support. On the other hand, look at the range of menu options within a single cellular handset manufacturer, let alone between suppliers. Developing technical support screens is part of the process in adding new phones.

Who will a customer call for help in transferring their address book, or uploading a picture?

Maybe it’s because my mind is still on vacation mode, but I had a hard time reading and deciphering the CRTC’s decisions last Friday. That is why it has taken a couple extra days to write this piece.

The Commission reviewed its ethernet orders that were released in January (see “CRTC driving wholesale access to NGN“). It reaffirmed parts, but reversed itself on some of the most contentious parts.

When the original ethernet access orders were released, I wrote:

There is an underlying subtext that needs to be explored at another time. The CRTC found that wholesale ethernet and ADSL are non-essential services, yet the Commission is imposing rates and terms that differ from those initially proposed by the ILECs. Contrast this to the Minister’s direction that requires the CRTC to determine the extent to which regulation of non-essential services should be phased out.

Among the issues considered in last week’s decision is the matter that there is a major Essential Services proceeding underway that could impact all of the competitor services that were under consideration in the January orders. The ILECs complained that the net effect was the possibility of subjecting certain services to three different regulatory regimes in an 18 month period – hardly consistent with the Policy Direction to ensure that regulation is minimal, efficient and proportionate.

The CRTC agreed, in part, that “there is substantial doubt as to the ongoing correctness of its determinations with respect to new services and new rates that are the subject of the review and vary applications.”

My colleagues and friends at Privacy Laws and Business in the UK are pointing to a recent release by Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office to help understand the limits on privacy expectations. The document is designed to help data protection practitioners decide whether data falls within the definition of personal data in circumstances where this is not obvious.

The information guide is especially timely, given last week’s release of a report on the April 16 Virginia Tech shooting rampage by student Seung-Hui Cho. According to news reports,

Virginia Tech officials missed numerous indications of Cho’s problems because they misinterpreted federal privacy laws as forbidding any exchange of a student’s mental health information.

Understanding bounds on personal privacy rights and expectations is critical for individuals and business alike.

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Michael Geist had an interesting article in yesterday’s Star called Unlocking the Mysteries of Locked Cellphones.

Our family has a couple unlocked phones that we use when we travel.

I agree with Michael that the handset belongs to the user, regardless of any subsidy associated with a multi-year contract. The contract obligates me to stay with the carrier or pay specified penalties. I wrote last February about a couple relevant rulings from the US Copyright Office on cell-phone embedded software.

Where I disagree with Michael is on the question of how much demand there is for unlocked phones. First off, the concept is meaningless for number portability in Canada – only one carrier (Rogers) currently supports GSM technology. Only a hard-core geek would even think of flipping between CDMA service providers with a single handset.

Next is the issue of how frequently customers want to upgrade their handsets anyway – seeking more mega-pixels on the camera; newer smart-features; stereo bluetooth headphones; GPS mapping. My unlocked phones, at 2 and 4 years old are museum pieces as far as my kids are concerned. When carriers are offering cheap new phones for switching, are there really people strongly attached to their old handsets?

The call-out box in the Star version of his article says:

While many consumers may like the opportunity to purchase a phone for a fraction of the full retail price, others would presumably prefer the freedom of an “unlocked” cellphone that would allow them to easily switch between carriers.

I suspect the others who would prefer the freedom are a small minority, often making this debate interesting but useless for the general public. My evidence? As I have written before, unlocked phones are widely available from various retailers, yet most people choose to go to official carrier stores and agents for the standard offering.

Why? For the same reason that most VCRs flashed 12:00 for years. Most people like things simple. Especially for their high tech toys.

The call out box also claims:

The freedom provided by unlocked cellphones is particularly useful for people who travel, since they can avoid roaming fees by converting their phone into a local phone in most countries by simply inserting a local SIM card. This approach is standard in Europe and Asia, where consumers would not tolerate a market comprised solely of locked cellphones.

Yes, the freedom is precisely why I have my unlocked phones. But, don’t get the idea that North America is a market “comprised solely of locked cell phones.” It is a $25-$35 exercise at many dealers to get your phone unlocked. Or you can readily buy an unlocked phone at many locations. And don’t get the impression that overseas markets are predominantly unlocked.

In my travels last week in a market enjoying well over 100% mobile penetration, most phones were locked to one carrier unless people had paid to have the phone unlocked. Very few of the people I met had bothered to do so.

A real challenge for us in the technology industry is to keep in mind that most of the general public aren’t like the folks in our engineering departments, or the folks who read my blog.

Thankfully!

I have written in the past about my dislike of preudo-human robotic IVRs for customer service lines. I think humans work faster and understand more.

If my call is really important to a company, then they would answer the phone.

Friday, I used 4 hours of my drive to Montreal trying to set up a new cell phone line for my daughter. More than a dozen separate calls. All I wanted to do was put her on a plan that was reasonably similar to a plan I have for one of my other lines.

As an aside, let me praise the battery life and speaker-phone capability of the Blackberry 8800 series.

Calls would drop; agents transferred me to fast busy; call queues would announce expected holding times measured in geological terms.

I finally reached a wonderful agent in a special service call centre who took care of everything. Other than the fact that they were out of stock on her first choice for a phone.

It shouldn’t be that hard to sign up. Even on a holiday weekend. Again, I have to wonder if telecom company management tries doing their own purchasing like regular customers.

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