Inside the Group

Fool Me Once, Shame on You, and Goodbye (Ugh!)

TODAY: T-MOBILE 

It’s not often you come across something so blatantly absurd that you feel the need to stop what you are doing and write about it, but then again you’re not me. (You are in fact fortunate in that regard, but I digress). Let me start with a little set-up to the story.

Spend the money, really. (UGH!)

Today: NETZERO

I was watching something on TV the other day when onto my screen popped the head of dial-up internet provider, Net Zero. As he often does, he immediately began touting the wonder that is his company, going so far as to say that his company could save broadband users $16B dollars annually by using their service. Wow! That’s a lot of mullah that hard working Americans could use for other things, and all they have to do is revert their entire lives back to those turtle-slow days of the early 90s.

I mean really, who is Net Zero trying to kid anyway? Their offer is tantamount to me promising huge savings if you were to trade your gas guzzler of a car in for a brand new horse and buggy. What a deal…save money on gas, protect the environment, and only add four to five hours to your daily commute.

Bottom line is that NetZero is in a dying industry. Dial-up access is only used by those who have no other choice or who have decided that to do their very minimal chores online that is all they need. But as is evidenced by the boom in online video, cloud computing, and other bandwidth-sucking innovations, the idea that saving money with dial-up comes with no catch (such as missing out on most of what is being offered online these days) is false. Yet that exact premise is promoted in NetZero’s marketing.

Now there is something to be said for the oligopoly that the cable, satellite, and DSL companies have on our access to the internet, and hopefully in time we will create ways to make competition stronger and keep prices in check. But to try and convince people that preventing themselves from all that the information economy provides and requires is somehow the solution to higher broadband prices, is not only disingenuous, but insulting to consumers, and is worthy of our UGH! Seal of Disapproval.

Technorati Tags: broadband,netzero,consumers,deceptive marketing,information technology

Inside the Group is the brainstorming and discussion world of evolution firm Westfall | Group