MCI, Get with it!

While Ted and I plan to use iChat and/or Skype to keep in touch, we didn’t know when I left what my Internet access would be. Just to make sure I could communicate, Ted found out that it was possible to use the MCI card from Turkey. All I had to do was call a special toll-free number specific to Turkey, punch in some codes and I was ready to go. Ted wrote out the whole process and sent me with not one but two copies of the directions.

The first thing I did after arriving at the hotel was to try calling Ted to let him know I had arrived safely. Sadly, even though I followed the directions, the phone in the room didn’t work. I went down to the hotel reception and “asked” (the person at the desk didn’t speak any English) to use the desk phone. He communicated to me that the hotel phones weren’t working and fetched a cell phone. He dialed the number and had no luck. He let me try; same result. We tried again in the morning, leaving off the “0”, thinking that might not really be necessary. No luck.

When I got to the university that morning, I was able to e-mail Ted and he contacted MCI. They said they weren’t set up to receive calls from cell phones and I should call from a land line. Come on, MCI. In the US, you wouldn’t use a calling card if you had a cell phone. But if you claim to be an international company, you ought to get to know your markets. Everyone in Turkey uses cell phones. There isn’t even a phone line into my building. There are no phones in the teachers’ offices at Zirve. There probably are in administrative offices; I haven’t looked. And even the faculty in UW’s Communications department decided to give up land lines in their offices as a cost-cutting device because no one was using those phones anyhow.

Everyone in Turkey uses cell phones. There is no service you subscribe to. You just buy a phone – and you can get them quite cheaply – and then go into a TurkCell store or booth and put minutes on your phone. Very practical and reasonable. I haven’t seen a public phone booth anywhere, and I’ve ridden buses up and down several of the main roads and a few of the side ones. So MCI, get with it! Don’t offer a worldwide service that depends on land lines. Most of the rest of the world is learning to live without them.