Monday, July 07, 2008

 

One little word

The StarOne little word in Michael Geist's column in the Toronto Star today made me decide to write this post.

What is that word?

The word "usage" in the following sentence is just plain wrong.
Canada ranks toward the very bottom among developed countries for cellphone usage as the lack of competition leaves Canadians with some of the highest prices for wireless services in the world.
Actually, Canadian cell phone usage is among the highest in the world, an inconvenient fact that doesn't fit the thesis set out in the article.

Maybe a copy editor didn't like the word "penetration" and decided to change the word to "usage" without checking if it changed the context

I have no trouble with people wanting lower prices for their wireless service - I have written many times before about how much I like free. I might even agree with Professor Geist that users should have the right to remove software and technical locks on handsets as long as they recognize that they are voiding their warranty and don't start complaining to tech support about problems.

Let's try to get the facts right so that we can engage in a real dialog.

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Comments:
Mark, can you point us to a resource where we can see a comparison of worldwide penetration and usage statistics?

Also, I've been wondering if you are planning to weigh in on the hoopla surrounding the Rogers iPhone pricing strategies vis-a-vis costs in other markets? Any reaction to ruinediphone.com?
 
Geoff - There was a report by Merrill Lynch that had a table dated April 21, 2008 with penetration and usage. That table indicates that, on average, Canadians used 439 minutes per month, second only to the US, and almost triple the European average of 161 minutes. That table has a good summary of a lot of stats: penetration, % prepaid, MOU, data, ARPU, etc.

I don't plan to weigh in specifically on Rogers' iPhone pricing other than to say that I think that any company, in any business, not only has the right to charge what the market will bear, but has a duty to its shareholders to maximize profits.
 
Thanks.

Out of curiosity, I did check Professor Geist's blog. It does use "penetration" while the same commentary on the Star website has "usage".

Seems that your concern about the work of a copy editor was well founded. Perhaps you should let the editorial staff at the Star know about the impact of their revision.
 
Actually, you'll notice that the Hamilton Spectator has the same word "usage", not "penetration".

It isn't for me to talk to the copy editors - I'll leave that to the author to clarify with his readers and editors.
 
Mark,

I don't usually respond to surprisingly petty postings, I don't think the usage of the word "usage" is "just plain wrong." You seem to believe that the word usage can only refer to the amount that Canadians use their cellphones. That is one interpretation.

Another is that "usage" refers to the number of Canadians that use cellphones. This terminology is the same that is employed by the World Economic Forum which under the category of "Usage" ranked Canada 75th for the number of mobile subscribers.

http://www.insead.edu/v1/gitr/wef/main/analysis/choosedatavariable.cfm

Michael Geist
 
Geist, You mean "subscriptions" and not "subscribers" right?

It doesn't make much sense that Luxembourg has 151 subscribers per 100 people.
 
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