Final Word from Tuesday, January 21, 2003
T-Mobile and Český Telecom learned some hard lessons when they were forced to reverse new policies yesterday on sending SMSes from the web and trading in old phone cards. T-Mobile underestimated the special-interest groups that profit from free SMSes. Regular customers were also angry about having to start paying, but the real offensive came from people with hidden agendas. Telecom's case was more serious, although less publicized, because the company tried to invalidate cards with money still on them. If there wasn't a bigger outrage, it's only because few mobile-crazy Czechs care anymore about making calls from phone booths. Strange that it took Telecom months to realize that by invalidating the cards, it was letting millions of paying customers walk out the door forever. The mobile operators, despite their occasional slips, would never let this happen.