The Broadband Giveaway!!

[Hands0n]

As 3GSU points out, the financial case for convergence is compelling. Early adopters beware! What you may not see behind the glossy branding is the assembly of a number of different and disparate organisations with their own supply and support processes and procedures. It will take a strong management team and some time to bring the whole into a coherent supply train. Anyone who has been involved in mergers and acquisitions from the inside will have a good idea of what is involved and how long it takes for coherence to set in, if ever.

For example, lets take the recent Virgin branding of NTL. Almost everyone knows that Virgin has a solid offering in the mobile world. Good supply, and good Customer support. NTL on the other hand has spawned an entire industry of "disaffected" bringing into being the now legendary NTL:Hell website. The fact that NTL:Hell continues to exist is not only embarrassing for NTL but should be of great concern to Virgin (you ignore the buying public at your peril). What will the site be named next, if NTL cannot pull it together and match the Virgin delivery/support? Will the Virgin brand become afflicted by its new parent? Life in the fast lane is not all spin and no-substance, the Customer knows what they want, and what they are not being given.

So, imagine the near-future scenario - a deleriously happy Virgin Mobile customer decides to go for the Four Play. All goes well until the NTL syndrome begins to bite - and now we have a customer who begins to feel disaffected to the Virgin brand. After the usual bout of Customer Service wars the customer walks away disgusted with the all new Virgin, vowing never to return! Not something Sir Richard would have wanted at all, NTL becoming a wrecking ball to the Virgin reputation.

Okay, so this is perhaps a gloomy scenario - but what, if anything, has changed at NTL to make NTL:Hell redundant? If the answer is "Nothing...." then it is inevitable that Virgin's branding will suffer as a consequence of this marriage.

But more importantly than any of that, the Customer choice will have been spoiled. And that cannot be for the good of the Customer.

I remain open to being swayed towards convergence, as I really can see its many benefits, but these I feel are outweighed by the negatives in the current state of the art.