It is convergence and easy of use for New Yorkers

New York

September 6th, 2007

Whether it is the old fashioned J&R store for electronics or a T-Mobile
store for mobile devices, or the much talked about Apple store, New Yorkers go
for converged devices which promise ease of use and are ready to pay handsome
price for these devices as well.

"This store was one of the first to hit the skyline when it comes to
electronics. It started way back in 1970s. I have personally seen a lot of
technological changes that this city. From heavy phones, to pagers and to other
handsets and communication devices, I have seen it all. Today, it is all about
convergence and how easily these big telcos deliver technology to the end
customers. We stock a lot of technology driven products these days, and get
customers from all walks of life and all age groups," explains Micheal
Osbourne from J&R store in New York located just two blocks away from
'ground zero'.

With US having a healthy teledensity, there is not much of a scope to expand
the market. As a result, the country has different service providers like
AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon Wireless throwing different value adds
for the customers.

Go to any T-Mobile store (there are close to 1000 around the city of New York
alone) and you are likely to get hold of a 'sidekick'. It is a device targeted
at youngsters. "It is to the young generation what Blackberry is to the
enterprise segment users. People want to do many things with their devices.
Convergence is truly on their mind," explains Monash Bratt of T-Mobile
store situated near the famous Times Square in New York.

What future holds for telecom channel?

A lot of channel players operating in the telecom space say that they would
continue to add value to their overall business offerings in the form of
delivering more technologically sound products and servicing products. "We
all used to selling products like cameras and related accessories. But today a
lot of our focus is on mobiles and servicing mobility related products. Moving
forward, I am sure we would continue to drive more value from servicing
front," explained, Frank from Broadway New York based, NY Camera store.

While retail stores like Staples, OfficeDepot and CompUSA offer telecom
products as a value add to their customers, dedicated telecom channel stores
like Verizon Wireless are becoming popular when it comes to getting the best of
mobility products.

"There are more than a thousand of these stores in New York alone. Most
of the dedicated telecom stores offer a unique hands-on experience to end
customers. We always try to develop the comfort level for the customer and offer
the best in class products and services," informed, Jonathan Doura from
Verizon Wireless based at the 34th Street.

9/11 changed things:

As we inch towards the sixth anniversary of 9/11, sitting just two blocks
away from the ground zero, Peter Sniezer from J&R says that that eventful
day changed the way people look at communication today. "That day almost
all our communication infrastructure got disrupted and there were no signals
coming from this place. As a result, whether it is their office or their homes,
we have seen people going for more robust communication infrastructure. They buy
more signal boosters and such devices to improve upon the existing signal
quality of their communication devices," he adds.

Most of the service providers like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile
had a lot of communication infrastructure based at the twin towers. So when it
went down, most of the communication lines were simply running out of gear.
Things have changed today and most of these service providers have distributed
their communication gear evenly in the city. "That day everything went
haywire. I still remember how we kept calling up people and the networks were
not responding at all. Firstly, there was big congestion in the network and
secondly most of the communication gear like cell towers were actually based at
these twin towers only that went down that day. Things have changed now. We have
a lot of high-rise buildings hosting this telecom infrastructure evenly in the
city now," says, an AT&T representative on conditions of anonymity.