What would happen if one of the five mobile networks took the decision to quit advertising and invest that cash into better service provision for it’s network users? For a start, we might not have to endure the irritating “comedian” who introduces comedy sponsored by 3 on channel 4, but I won’t get into that!

Imagine a world…

What if advertising didn’t exist – if it suddenly disappeared right now and there was no way to buy exposure to a market? How would the mobile networks find customers? We’d still need them, as mobile connectivity is now a must have, and there’s no way we (as a nation) would give it up – so we’d still be using it and paying for it. The size of the market wouldn’t get any smaller if the networks didn’t advertise.

If that’s the case, then the only reason to advertise is to gain market share. What if, instead of spending millions on advertising, one of the networks put that money into improving their quality of service? What if, with this cash injection into their infrastructure, they could offer service guarantees to their users? And what if, their quality and consistency of service was undeniably better than the other networks? Would they gain market share then? Would you tell your friends? Probably.

It’s a risky move, as with anything like this, you simply won’t know if it’ll work out until the idea is tried and tested. Unfortunately there are some things that can’t be tested on a small scale – you have to go all in, a watered-down version simply wouldn’t work, because it’s not just about providing a better service, it’s also about proving that your all about a better service.

Just a thought.