Your thoughts on another Sprint Blunder

On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 15:56:43 -0500, "MTG" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Sprint prolly went the way of most companies in America looking to save a
>buck -- Hire IT folks overseas in India and pay them $20/hour instead of
>$150/hour.

$20? HAHAHA, I'd guess about $10. I've read that programmers get
about $4/hr. Of course that amount is relative to the area involved.

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› See More: Your thoughts on another Sprint Blunder

MTG" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
> "Scott Stephenson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news[email protected]...
> >
> > "MTG" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > >
> >
> > >
> > > ok i see where you are coming from. and i agree. i'm still just
> confused
> > > on why there are two contract date values...
> > >
> > >
> >
> > My guess is that the website is calling up some other date- basically
> > calling from the wrong field. If Customer Care is giving one date (the
> > right one) then this would seem to be the case.
>
> Not saying that isn't the issue, but one would think someone has called it
> to Sprint's attention and changing the code would be done instantly...
>
>

Instantly! What IT organization does anything instantly. Not that this
isn't something that needs fixed,...but its probably low on the totem pole
as far as critical stuff.

As for the other dudes comments about "all the wireless providers have
crappy billing systems and their wireline cousins do not"...its because
wireless companies exploded in the 90's and didn't have time to do it right.
Wireline companies have had 20, 30, 40+ years to do and redo their systems.
Not to mention their business is pretty damn boring..how many "new plans"
have you seen from your local telco provider in the last year? Free
minutes?, extended calling hours?, local number portability!!!, nope.
....the wireless industry is thrashing.

my $0.02

dkar <[email protected]> wrote:

> As for the other dudes comments about "all the wireless providers have
> crappy billing systems and their wireline cousins do not"...its because
> wireless companies exploded in the 90's and didn't have time to do it right.
> Wireline companies have had 20, 30, 40+ years to do and redo their systems.
> Not to mention their business is pretty damn boring..how many "new plans"
> have you seen from your local telco provider in the last year? Free
> minutes?, extended calling hours?, local number portability!!!, nope.
> ...the wireless industry is thrashing.

I don't believe "all wireless providers have crappy billing systems." Some
of them work properly.


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In article <[email protected]>,
"dkar" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> As for the other dudes comments about "all the wireless providers have
> crappy billing systems and their wireline cousins do not"...its because
> wireless companies exploded in the 90's and didn't have time to do it right.
> Wireline companies have had 20, 30, 40+ years to do and redo their systems.
> Not to mention their business is pretty damn boring..how many "new plans"
> have you seen from your local telco provider in the last year? Free
> minutes?, extended calling hours?, local number portability!!!, nope.
> ...the wireless industry is thrashing.

Not true. One can change Local and/or Long Distance landline providers
and kleep their phone number. And most landline companies now have many
long distance plans with bundles of minutes.

I would suggest the difference is Landline is profitable, while for many
companies (like SprintPCS) wireless is not profitable yet, so they cut
corners on IT.

"Chris McFarland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Not true. One can change Local and/or Long Distance landline providers
> and kleep their phone number. And most landline companies now have many
> long distance plans with bundles of minutes.
>
> I would suggest the difference is Landline is profitable, while for many
> companies (like SprintPCS) wireless is not profitable yet, so they cut
> corners on IT.

I tend to think it is more a case of too much technology to handle. All of
the cellular companies are throwing a ton of money at new technologies.
Unfortunately, they outsource almost all of the application development and
design, which makes making changes both expensive and not timely. And the
software developer will always fight tooth and nail when something is
identified as a defect (which has to be fixed for free), and try to classify
it as an enhancement (which they get paid extra for). The difference always
comes down to whether or not the issue at hand was *****ed out in the
requirements for the application. All of this does take time and money.

And we have to remember that we are talking about a product the size of a
pack of cigarettes that has more functionality built in than
third-generation PC's had, and with no hardline connection to operate. In
the current competitive environment, survival is based on IT dollars. That
doesn't mean they are spending it wisely- AT&T and Sprint are both showing
signs of this currently.