Breezerunner - thanks for your outstanding DD - on a saturday no less! This may be my last post on ONCI so here it is for you to run with. I am retired after spending 39 years at Verizon. I read a post earlier that was opining that VZ and AT&T and some other big boys could out market us by hiring the best & brightest marketing/sales kids from the best schools. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Think about your last cell phone purchase. You may have went to a provider specific corporate store but more than likely went to one of the various "authorized providers" for VZ or AT&T. Allow me to leave Sprint; T-Mobile; and Metro PCS out of this discussion. There have been several levels of "authorized providers" but even the best are working as sub contractors for the 2 dominant carriers and are manned by high school and college kids and/or techie guys and do not earn anywhere near a salary that the best and brightest would demand/require. They have no say as to what "corporate" is providing for them to sell! Most are not VZ or AT&T employees.
Most of the marketing/product management/sales people were "old" telephone people from the telecom/landline side of the business. A lot of them had worked as technicians/office workers inside the switching centers or business offices; and outside as installers/repairmen when "the phone company" was the only game in town.
Think about the apps they offer today. They are primitive when compared to an ONCI type app that integrates the car and the phone. They know distracted driving is a problem but no one wanted to be the first to offer apps that stopped phone use for fear of losing market share.
Think about your cell phone bill. Most are bundles of high volume/unlimited voice/data packages where they don't lose any revenue if a call/text is not allowed to go through. They just didn't want to prevent their customers from using their phones, period!
Think about the cell phones. Does VZ or AT&T make any cell phones? NO! Most phones are made by Apple and Samsung. They make phones - at a high price - that are meant to be used with all of the newest features that today's technology allows. Do they have patents that are meant for phones not to be used?
Think about VZ and AT&T wireless. VZ wireless was created from a merger of Bell Atlantic Mobile and Vodaphone (used to own 45% of VZ wireless). Verizon was busy trying to keep landlines in service when Vodaphone said - from their European experience - that wireless was the way to go. Some of the biggest competition for VZ Telecom came from VZ wireless - and, vice versa.
I don't really expect a poster who doesn't know much about big business to know that AT&T doesn't really exist anymore - except in name only. The old AT&T was bought (for $16B) in 2005 by SBC (Southwestern Bell Companies - one of the regional companies formed by the breakup of the Bell System). At this time AT&T owned very little cellular properties. They were a long distance company with a landline based network. They kept the AT&T name for branding purposes. AT&T had a lot more name recognition that SBC. Next, SBC/ATT merged with Bell South and bought Cingular wireless. What they had was a lot of revenue to buy wireless licenses.
If VZ and AT&T had the apps and patents that ONCI has, ONCI would have never happened! I think ONCI is in a great position to be successful. We have the right patents and products at the right time for the right group of customers.
I wish all here much success in whatever strategy you are using to bank profits. I remain long with a substantial stake in ONCI.
Just my opinion, of course. Go ONCI
Signing off - John aka Reindeer
