Babies, cars, pets and parents-in-laws are normally associated with domestic upheavals, but for the past two months mine has been upset by the cellular phone industry, and not by one company, but three of them.
The major issue is service, or rather the lack of it. Service supplier MTN ran out of ideas, Motorola avoided the issue, while Internet services company Exactmobile.co.za seems to try its best only because the problem kept returning to it.
It all started when my partner (a real live walking talking brain surgeon with rocket scientist aspirations) decided that her life would be a lot better if she had one of those brand new Motorola T720 cellphones. The decision to have one centred firstly on the design (it is very cute), the hype (all those amazing things you can access and do) and finally the cost and who was actually supplying them.
As is usual with things of this nature, the issues were solved in reverse order. In December, only MTN was offering contracts that came with the Motorola T720, and so the number change came along accompanied by a "small premium because it is a new model". And then finally it was the business end of getting the browser to work and then accessing those games and services.
Once again, as with many other information, communications and technology sectors, the hype far outstripped the reality.
Paul Vecchiatto, Managing Editor, ZAFinance
I though that it was rather cheap of Motorola to supply the phone only with demo versions of the advertised games - MotoGP, Tetris (a favourite of mine) and Breakout. One had to access these games by going to the Motorola Web site and then pay to download them. However, the lack of Motorola infrastructure in this country means that it is almost impossible to do so.
We discovered this when the brain surgeon decided she wanted to download screen savers and polyphonic ring tones from the Exactmobile.co.za site. Impossible.
It turned out that Motorola had not supplied the company with a sample phone to familiarise the staff with so they were unable to help solve the problem initially. One suggestion was to deactivate the phone`s GPRS so that the WAP browser could download the content. Apparently GPRS is useful only for text content and not graphics and sounds, despite it being the newer technology.
MTN`s response was: "We turned on your data and fax services, now please go back to the manufacturer."
Motorola`s helpline proved to be no help at all. On several occasions a message was heard saying: "The client`s mailbox is full ... goodbye". The Motorola head office number is useful only if you want to listen to music.
Eventually, the little phone had to have a software upgrade from version 18 to 52. Amazing to think that it is brand new on the market and it already needs an upgrade.
Then, it turned out that when entering the browser settings there was no apparent way to enter the important + sign in front of the CSD phone code, but fortunately Exactmobile did figure it out.
And now things are working as they should be, peace has returned and my thumping headache has gone.
However, a couple of interesting points have emerged from this.
Firstly, once again, as with many other information, communications and technology sectors, the hype far outstripped the reality. Secondly, a rather neat little product, where so much has been spent on development and marketing, is being ruined by a lack of service and care. The Motorola T720 (certainly not the first and I am sure it will not be the last) was launched without the necessary infrastructure to support it and its applications. Finally, the fragmentation in the cellular industry means that each company almost ignores what the others are doing, much to the frustration of the customers.
Share