As pal Om Malik writes this weekend about the layoff woes at Alcatel-Lucent and the delisting danger at Nortel, many of us in the industry are experience what I call the “Heartburn Chuckle”. Or, as I try to put an ironic spin on Jeff Pulver’s famous Purple Minutes expression by calling negative achievements in the telecom industry as “Brown Minutes”, I can’t help but laugh at how empty the promise of unified communications has turned out to be.
This is Brown Minutes and the Heartburn Chuckle all wrapped together. But I can tell you why this telecom crash is occuring. Remember, once an industry is scaled to its max, like the telecom industry, the only way to succeed is to generate profit through new innovations. Merely recycling established ideas with different pricing and bundles may be good for short-term cash grabs but has little to do with the sustainability of long-term profit. Just ask Yahoo. They’re dying because of that axiom right now.
The Manufacturers
Companies like Cisco and Nortel have done too little to move the VoIP revolution beyond the customer’s demarc, while tradeshow talks about SIP trunking and a spirit of cooperation in using the Internet to replace the PSTN have all been hollow talk designed to please the audience of the day. True, end-to-end VoIP still isn’t reality unless you’re willing to sit in front of your PC and run Skype. To say Skype carried out the VoIP vision more successfully than Cisco and Nortel ought to be greatly humbing to those companies, but it’s really true. Skype got it. Cisco, Nortel, and Avaya didn’t.
The big manufacturers continue to be the only powers with enough leverage to move the carrier giants away from circuit-switched technology, yet the manufacturer’s own uncertainties about recooping licensing fees and retaining customer-base (through lock-in rather than innovation) have scared them away from issuing the carriers a real challenge: build an all-IP global voice network or we will.
The Carriers
The carriers are firms like AT&T, Windstream, Verizon, BT, and so on. Their obsession with the billing unit (the almighty minute) has made them helpless to see the possibilities of a software-rich, application-based global ecosystem. Consequently, the most successful apps to arrive on the carriers’ networks, the ones most embraced by the public, overwhelmingly have one purpose: to steal billable minutes from the carriers. The innovation disappeared and the scrappy new players in the market, the ones with the power to transform the public’s thinking about telecom, instead got stuck doing the same old thing the big telecoms do to put bread on the table: bill minutes.
The Government
In the United States, deregulation under President Clinton in the Telecom Act of 1996 went in all the wrong directions and didn’t do enough to create entrepreneurial freedom in telecom. It failed to recognize that the Internet was going to eclipse the PSTN in terms of consumer participation, and as a result, it positioned the carriers to remain in their highly subsidized comfort zone.
Further mistakes were made when the FCC became distracted by lobbying for Network Neutrality legislation. As with many things, the passage of time revealed that Netnoot was a solution in search of a problem, more often than not. Apparently nobody at the FCC realized that the free market would provide for the needs of consumers who didn’t want to participate in a 93-octane Internet. So the FCC spent a lot of time looking at issues that were overstated and geared to bolster the chances of a few admittedly excellent Silicon Valley content startups who didn’t want to get choked out by the carriers.
Shame on us for not recognizing that the carriers are too inept to succeed in the content business anyway. And shame on the FCC for wasting all that energy when they should’ve been looking at ways to encourage greater adoption of end-to-end IP technology.
The Conclusion
So, when you have three willing participants in a massacre, you get a massacre. The three power players in our industry–boxmakers, regulators, and networkers–are playing the same tune. Protect revenue by doing nothing. The fruits of that labor are now obvious. Like the automotive industry, which has a frighteningly similar situation on its hands, the answer now is the same as ten years ago: innovation. Put on those thinking caps, MIT grads and garage tinkerers. We’ve got an even bigger hole to think our way out of now.
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
Recent Blogroll Additions……
[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Superb webpage…
[...] The material talked about inside the post are a number of the most effective in existence [...]…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
You should check this out…
[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……
Hello…
I genuinely enjoy reading on this site, it has got fantastic blog posts. “Violence commands both literature and life, and violence is always crude and distorted.” by Ellen Glasgow….
Favorite webpage…
[...] plenty of time to study or visit the content material or sites we’ve linked to directly below the [...]…
[...]always a big fan of linking to bloggers that I love but don’t get a lot of link love from[...]……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Visitor suggestions…
[...] may probably have worn out the lack of this points driven by way of oneself on [...]…
Links…
[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……
Hi…
I really appreciate this post. I’ve been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thanks again!…
Looking around……
[...] we stumbled on a really good site that you may possibly enjoy. Look it over if you need to [...]…
Favorite sites…
[...] If you would like additional information about this issue, more information about the present issue is presented on [...]…
Blogs to check…
[...] always check below, are a number of utterly unrelated sites to ours, nevertheless, they’re most honest sources that many of us use [...]…
I’m looking to get him an EXTERNAL dvd burner/duplicator for Christmas…
[...]which ever will allow him to back up his DVDs. I see the term “duplicator” and “burner” used, is there a difference between them? Is there a drastic [...]…
Hello…
Thanks, I’ve recently been searching for info approximately this topic for a long time and yours is the best I’ve came upon so far. However, what concerning the bottom line? Are you positive in regards to the source?…
Great website…
[...] Here’s some relevant facts [...]…
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...] kindly visit the sites we read, which includes this one, as it signifies our picks right from the internet [...]…
Hi…
I like this website it’s a master piece! Glad I detected this on google….
Hi…
hi!,I really like your writing very much! percentage we be in contact more approximately your post on AOL? I require an expert in this space to unravel my problem. Maybe that’s you! Having a look ahead to see you….
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
Hey…
I really appreciate this post. I have been looking all over for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thank you again!…
Hello…
Very interesting points you have mentioned , thankyou for posting . “Pleasure and love are the pinions of great deeds.” by Charles Fox….
Visitor suggestions…
[...] Tend not to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol as they can also bring about heartburn. The most effective way regarding how to remedy heartburn is to lower the spice ingredients [...]…
Trackback…
[...] normally posts certain fascinating stuff like this. When you are new to this site [...]…
Trackback for this post…
[...] this is actually the end of this short article. Here you can find some sites that we think you will appreciate, follow on the links over [...]…
Hi…
I really like your writing style, superb information, regards for posting : D….
Hey…
Merely wanna remark on few general things, The website design and style is perfect, the subject matter is very good : D….
Wow!…
A very fascinating post….
Hello…
I believe this site contains some really wonderful info for everyone
. “This is an age in which one cannot find common sense without a search warrant.” by George Will….
[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……
[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……
[...]always a big fan of linking to bloggers that I love but don’t get a lot of link love from[...]……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……