I’m a sceptical person by nature, so when I see that Verizon has extended its promise to waive all long-distance charges for calls to Haiti from customer’s residential or wireless phones, or that AT&T has donated heavily to restore Haiti’s ravage telecommunications infrastructure, I become suspicious. In my experience, gestures that are ostensibly altruistic are often, at their core, really about capitalizing on tragedies for cheap marketing, to make a timely foreign corporate acquisition, or to simply advertise their company as the ethical choice. So, what do these two telecom giants have to gain from this gesture of assistance to those still waiting to connect to loved ones living amongst the ruins of Haiti?
Their intentions aside for a moment, one thing that is abundantly clear is that neither company wants to be philanthropically bested. If either side failed to act, certainly their competitor would be seen as the greater of the two companies, and the other would immediately lose the valuable business of those regularly connecting with friends in the Caribbean. Nothing motivates people towards helping others faster than the threat of losing face.
But while I remain sceptical of their motivations, I can’t help but acknowledge that both these companies are making a significant difference for those impacted by this disaster. Both have made it possible—not to mention easy—for wireless customers to donate to reliable and effective charities that are actively working in Haiti, both are continuing to work with other relief agencies to restore telecommunications in Haiti, and both carriers are working hard to expedite the release of donated funds to the charities to help assuage the hardship of the Haitians as quickly as possible; all of this in addition to providing free long-distance.
While genuine gestures of compassion and care are rare in a society where corporations are fixated on the bottom line, it’s hard to argue with the actions of these telecom rivals and with the millions of dollars that have been donated by their wireless customers to date.
In recent days, though, it seems that Verizon is winning this philanthropic competition, as in addition to waiving the long-distance usage charges, Verizon has recently announced a total of $100,000 in grants they’ve awarded to non-profit agencies aiding in the recovery efforts in Haiti and a dollar-for-dollar donation matching plan for Verizon employees that has, to this point, raised more than $500,000 dollars. Despite this, and whatever their true intentions may be, both companies should be commended for their worthy efforts in helping to alleviate the suffering in Haiti.
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Written by: Matt Klassen. www.digitcom.ca >. Follow TheTelecomBlog.com > by: RSS >, Twitter >, Identi.ca >, or Friendfeed >
