Healthy Competition between Four National Operators Namely AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint - Term Paper Example

? AT&T Introduction In the corporate world, technology has played a crucial role in shaping the manner of information delivery across different divides between clients and service providers. As such, tablets have brought a revolution in sharing information, where information is being shared on the go and the on the go. Telephone services in the United States are characterized by a healthy competition between four national operators namely AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint. Each communication company offers tailored services to their subscribers in accordance to their mission and vision. Similarly, the operators’ privacy policy remains of enormous importance and is significant in swaying preference based on how secure a client feels. While national carriers remain committed to privacy protection, the problem persists in modern times owing to clauses that seem to preserve corporate interests at the expense of the client. Focusing on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, this paper explores similarities and differences privacy policies with the aim of establishing areas that require improvement. Background and Visions With its origins linked to the Bell Telephone Company that was founded by Graham Bell, AT&T commands a large market share across its subsidiary companies that offer a wide range of products and services. The company boosts a large following of more than 100 million subscribers of broad range wireless voice and data services. This is facilitated by the company’s capacity and coverage that goes beyond the US and into more than 200 countries. For periods, AT&T have established consistency in innovative, reliable, and high quality products and services guided by the mission to connect people with their world. The company’s mission seeks to establish coverage in accordance to basic and daily routines of their target population (AT&T, n.d.). In this manner, AT&T seeks perfection in the provision of services by creating new solutions to cover personal and business needs, which drives innovation in the industry. An amalgamation between Bell Atlantic and GTE saw the emergence of Verizon, which has grown to become a major competitor in the provision of wired and wireless communication services. Initially, Bell Atlantic was founded as a result of the AT&T breakup in the anti-trust judgment, which saw the Bell acquire seven of Bell Operating Companies. As such, this contributed to the rise of the company to the largely competitive communications industry in the US. Verizon specializes in the provision of wire line communication services and boosts of a wide coverage of high-speed optical fibre line, which serves facilitate various products. This has seen the company establish partnerships with various broadcast companies to deliver a wide variety of digital entertainment including pay-tv services. This way, Verizon is able to fulfil the basic of its intentions as stipulated in the company’s mission, which is to allow communication among people and businesses. The company also indicates a great deal of commitment to its clientele, staff, and investors that works towards creating a respected brand in communication. With its base in Kansas City, Sprint Corporation serves millions of businesses and residential customers in more than 70 countries. The company is recognized for the development and deployment of state-of-the-art network technologies associated with America’s first nationwide fiber-optic network. It is through this that clients are served in various capacities including network-based voice, video, and data services. Sprint’s mission aims at the provision of enriching and productive experience to their customers with regard to communication solutions. This way, the company hopes to provide the best client service, products, and rates that will constitute the evaluation standards in the world. Similarities in Private Policies A privacy policy describes a set of regulations that govern the collection, use, and dissemination of a client’s information pertaining to personal details and activities (Bauknecht, Bichler and Proll, 2004). Such policies protect consumers from unwarranted harassment from individuals driven by malicious intentions such as fraud and identity theft. Information collected by most companies’ remains in their custody for safekeeping unless authorised to share the same for a number of valid reasons. Companies of interest in this paper – AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint – have defined their parameters of protection under the privacy policy that indicates significant similarities. The companies collect similar information from their customers’ activity in various products and services subscribed for. The policies captures account information to reveal a client’s name, address, payment data, and service history among other details. Also captured is the network usage and performance of respective devices, which handy for diagnostic purposes. Notably, the companies collect information in a similar fashion automatically when their clients accessing their subscriptions or contact the service providers. The basic way of capturing information thus entails purchases made in various communication outlets and the activation of products and services. This way, information about usage history and product history is generated and captured by the service providers. Marketing companies have also been indicated as a source of consumer information providing relevant details to the communication companies. Another similarity in the privacy policies lies with the handing of information gathered and how it is used where the companies outline various applications. The policies bear a common stance that the information is meant to improve the quality of service and customer experience by monitoring network usage and traffic flow. The data in also to address security concerns and fraud cases thus protecting subscribers’ rights and property from potential harm. Billing and advertisements are also run based on the consumer preferences and consumption rates. While indicate their commitment to maintaining custody of personal information, the companies, through a clearly statement, highlights a range of exception. The exceptions are related to legal processes, emergencies cases, and across companies affiliated with the said service providers. Moreover, the companies maintain no licences or financial benefit from captured information. Differences in Privacy Policies AT&T offers a recently revised and comprehensive privacy policy as compared to Verizon and Sprint where Sprint’s privacy policy was last reviewed in 2012 (Sprint, 2012). AT&T provides its customers with the option of customizing interactions with third party companies that are associated with the service provider. Meanwhile, Verizon and Sprint shares information with such third party institutions should one choose to follow linked advertisements (Verizon, 2013; Sprint, 2012). In addition, AT&T does not deliberately gather information from customers below the age of 13 without consent from the parents or guardians. Resolve While privacy policies appear clearly in favor of the consumer, there exist various interpretations of different clauses in the document. As such, individuals with such knowledge can manipulate the policy to suit their needs. It is for this reason that service providers should consider a public campaign to educate their subscribers on the extent of protection accorded within the company’s mandate. Similarly, a frequent review of privacy policies is recommended, as it is necessary to keep up with emerging technological changes. This would serve to benefit consumers by enhancing security of their personal information while the companies capitalizes on good customer relations. The issue of collection of data without the users consent is not a new thing since most applications found on smartphones have the capacity to collect personal data for their manufacturer. The privacy of application should be strongly and safely guarded against illegal use and collection; that is without the consent of the device and application users. This is because it leaves the users vulnerable to exploitation and abuse by application proprietors and developers, who collect the said information. As such, it would be prudent for communication service providers to define independence and limit the amount of data gathered. This would ensure unnecessary tussles and legal confrontations with regard to automated and unconsented data collection. The implementation of Federal Trade Commission recommendation on the use of collected information could end the lack of privacy experienced following errant under-regulation. Those that stand to gain from the enforcement are those that are still considered underage children as companies tend to collect their data even more than adults. This shows violation of rights since children do not have the power to know and even take legal action against the companies of their own accord as seen in “indicated that they were under age 13 without permission of their parents or disclosure of how it would use the information” (Wyatt, 2013). Enormous changes need implementation to limit the scope of application of information obtained from consumers, even when consent is granted. The reasons outlined by service providers do not at any degree outweigh the right to privacy for all. As such, agencies charged with the mandate of regulating communication companies should discourage the capture of all aspects a client. This would see service providers collect data that is only relevant to their business such as network statistics and performance. In essence, information pertaining to security codes, passwords, financial records, and service history does not contribute to service improvement and should not therefore, be under scrutiny. Companies should also consider establishing specialized department within their structure to manage and secure data captured from subscribers. In conclusion, the strength of a given privacy policy is directly proportional to the number of consumers, which means if a company has strong policies then it is likely to attract a large following. This translates good returns and growth in a given company. However, a lot remains to be done with regard to the capture personal information and subsequent use of the same. References AT&T (n.d.). AT&T Company Information. Retrieved from http://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=5711 Sprint (2012). Legal/Regulatory & Consumer Resources. Retrieved from http://www.sprint.com/legal/privacy.html#personal Wyatt, E (2013). F.T.C. Suggests Guidelines on Privacy for Mobile Apps. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/technology/ftc-suggests-do-not-track-feature-for-mobile-software-and-apps.html?hp&_r=0 Verizon (2013). Privacy Policy. Retrieved from http://www22.verizon.com/about/privacy/policy/ Bauknecht, K Bichler, M & Proll, B (2004). E-Commerce and Web Technologies. Oklahoma: Springer. Read More