One Bill

Listening to radio advertisements could drive one mad. The one that's got me in a tizzy right now is from the 'new at&t'. Y'know, the one where they blast the other providers about not being able to provide one bill for us, the unsuspecting customers. Who does this 'new at&t' think they are anyways? Why do they think they are better equipped to tell me what is best for me?

As I remember correctly, these were the same folks that tried to sell me dial-up internet service because it would be 'better for me to receive one bill from one provider', instead of the phone and other broadband solution that I had at the time. The facts today, as they existed back then, was/is that SBC, now the new at&t, does not provide high speed internet at my address, in my neighborhood, in my city, in my county, PERIOD! And to think the poor soul on the phone who is privy to customer information trying to upsell DIALUP to those already enjoying broadband via their company's competitor.

So, this new at&t is now trying to convince the listening audience that every 11 seconds, someone returns to new at&t. To that, I say, 'give me something worth coming back to'.

For example:

Cell Phone: Cingular (the affiliate of this new at&t) offers two phones under a family plan for 69.99 with 700 minutes each month. That's $10 over a similar plan from T-Mobile. That's 17% more (rounded up).

Land Line: Local service when I disconnected ran me about 50$ per month, and that's just for a dial tone. My current broadband service runs $199/year - taxes included, long distance included. So the new at&t would cost me upwards of 300% more, and that's not including the international calling credit I get each month.

Broadband: Well, I don't really have a choice here, or at least not one that I consider a choice. I get mine from the cable provider, for what I believe is an excessive price. There's this supposed wireless broadband (where they put up an antenna), but it costs even more, for less speed. Or a satellite solution, with the unacceptable latency. So I fork over 50$ each month for my broadband.

TV: Well, U-verse ain't here. Actually, it ain't anywhere, other than select parts of San Antonio and Houston. I don't get cable TV. The 'new at&t' prices the "America's Top 120" package at $44.99. Dish Network prices their "America's Top 120" package at $39.99. That's a 13% premium for a single bill from this new at&t.

So, let's add it up for a year:

Service         new at&t     ala carte
Cell Phone:      839.88       719.88
Voice Line:      600.00       199.99
Internet:         n/a         600.00
TV:              539.88       479.88
------------------------------------
Totals:         1979.76      1999.75
------------------------------------

So, there's a whopping savings of 19.99 per year if I went with the "new at&t", but I'm guessing that they can't provide me even dial-up service for $19.99 a year, and I'm unlikely to prefer dial-up service over broadband.

Some marketing genius must have thought this up, but they haven't got this old goat fooled. This 'old goat' already knows that even the cable company provides a single bill.

And I know for a fact that this "new at&t" does not provide package my other bills into a single bill - electric bill, gas bill, water bill, doctor bill, grocery bill, etc.

Oh, I did consolidate my 'bills' - they now come in on a credit card, and I make a single payment to the credit card company.

Note to 'marketing genius' - get your company to co-brand or try to buy a bank like WalMart - you can THEN provide a single bill to the customer.

Note to readers - don't keep a balance on your credit card - pay it off each month (or use AutoPay) to avoid the finance charges.

Cheers!

No thanks, I'll use Cash...

USA Today reports that banks are starting to put in more safeguards to protect against data theft.

I'm so glad (not) that they are putting in all of this to guard against online issues, but who's protecting me on the street? Will I someday go to a store, make my selections, and upon stepping up to the check out and presenting my credit card, be asked:

- Can I see your ID?

I imagine that the clerk with take a minute or two to examine the two documents, and then look up and spout:

- Please place your palm on the scanner for verification.

and I'd dutifully follow directions (since even Disney asks for a hand/finger verification). Maybe some folks will give them a #1 first. Perhaps there will be a data glitch and the palm print is not successfully verified within the 0% tolerance and they'll say:

- Can you step over here for a retina scan?

They do this in Europe, right, for those frequent travellers. But oops, I blinked, because I'm getting nervous. So, after failing the test, they'd probably ask:

- Would you mind providing a blood sample?

and that's where I'd draw the line. C'mon, I can't risk those contaminated needles, so, I'd either decline, forego my purchases, or, if I'm desperate, try to cough up some cash to complete my purchase.

Somehow, since we know that the credit bureaus have multiple records under my Social Security Number (which they won't confess or acknowledge), who's to say that all of my personal data hasn't already been cloned or mutilated?

The Scoop on eMail and SOX

Management for Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance. In simple terms, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires businesses to demonstrate effective corporate governance and information management controls.

At a fundamental level, complying with the regulation means establishing a process for managing communications and information lifecycle management. Since email has become the de facto method of business communication and the most critical source of information for almost every large business, the management of email is a fundamental element of SOX compliance.

The prospect of storing and retrieving email is daunting, as the sheer volume of email exchanged among enterprises is staggering. Recent research from the Radicati Group, Inc. states that the average corporate email user sends and receives 84 emails a day, equating to 10 MB per day of storage. This number is expected to rise to 15.8 MB per user, per day by 2008. Recent TowerGroup research on email content management states that by 2007 the securities industry alone will handle more than 95.8 million email messages per day.

What this means to you
I was explaining math to my 10yo, y'know, stuff like why 8+4x2 is 16 instead of 24 - the "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" mnemonic - Parentheses-Exponent-Multiply-Divide-Add-Subtract hierarchy for mathematical operations. We drifted on to exponents and as we were going through 2⁴ is 2x2x2x2 and 3³ is 3x3x3, the 6yo chimed in when I asked about 5³, announcing that 5³ would be 5x5x5. Oh, my point? My point is that you should be able to figure it out yourself about what this SOX stuff should mean to you personally without me having to explicitly state it.

What this means to the company
Less (computer, network, data, etc.) resources are needed for corporate email archiving when email correspondence of a non-business nature (pictures, funnies, family activities, etc.) are excluded from corporate email addresses.