Driving 75 MPH up the Rocky Mountains, it does not take me long to pass that Winnebago doing 40. You know the one. Car and bicycles in tow. Satellite dish on the roof. Older couple up-front, jovially chatting while staring into the horizon, hot cocoa mug in hand.
Suddenly, I feel a touch of jealousy as I wonder at the exotic places they’ve visited and what the road ahead might hold in store for them. I also sense a hint of bragging as I see all the stickers on the U.S. map attached to the back of the camper, proudly flaunting all the places they’ve been. Many have just a few states. Some have half the map covered. Occasionally you run into that rarest of RVs, the one which has every state plastered with stickers. If we assume the nice little old lady behind the steering wheel is not a rotten liar, that’s quite an accomplishment –driving to every state (although I must admit Hawaii makes me wonder).
If telecom providers drove campers, you’d see two brand new stickers completing Level 3’s U.S. voice coverage collection. Having just launched local voice services in Alaska and Hawaii, you must forgive me if there is a hint of bragging in my tone, now that we offer our own local telephone numbers in all 50 states (not to mention 25 other countries outside the U.S.). Granted, we already had a pretty darn deep local footprint (offering local numbers in areas serving approximately 86% of the U.S. population), however, you have to agree completing the collection is pretty cool!
But aside from the geek-out factor, what’s the big deal?
At the end of the day, it comes down to simplicity. The more geographic locations contact centers, app developers and alternative voice service providers can get from a single carrier with a single customer experience (single point of contact, shared network interface, portal, service management and invoice), the easier it becomes to manage your business. Oh, and did I mention, it’s really, really cool!
Update 7/31/2012:
Official Press Release: Level 3 Extends Voice Services to Alaska and Hawaii
About JP Gonzalez
