Comments on: Marginalization – The biggest threat to Carriers http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/01/marginalization-%e2%80%93-the-biggest-threat-to-carriers/ Telecom Circle analyses the latest trends and services within the Wireless and Internet space. Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:03:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Desrinda Syahfarin http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/01/marginalization-%e2%80%93-the-biggest-threat-to-carriers/comment-page-1/#comment-2053 Desrinda Syahfarin Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:32:54 +0000 http://www.telecomcircle.com/mohit/?p=10#comment-2053 Great review, very much informative and inspiring for telco industry player in Indonesia. Great review, very much informative and inspiring for telco industry player in Indonesia.

]]> By: Surendra Movva http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/01/marginalization-%e2%80%93-the-biggest-threat-to-carriers/comment-page-1/#comment-1964 Surendra Movva Fri, 02 Apr 2010 07:26:38 +0000 http://www.telecomcircle.com/mohit/?p=10#comment-1964 Hi Mohit, I am wondering how much of this article is suited to Indian context. What things change in Indian context? -Surendra Hi Mohit,

I am wondering how much of this article is suited to Indian context.
What things change in Indian context?

-Surendra

]]> By: Jobin Thomas http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/01/marginalization-%e2%80%93-the-biggest-threat-to-carriers/comment-page-1/#comment-1695 Jobin Thomas Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:56:08 +0000 http://www.telecomcircle.com/mohit/?p=10#comment-1695 Mohit, Good article with many lucid points! It is true that carriers believed that the good times would last long at their own pace. From a classical telco scale, too many things are changing too fast, and not all of those changes are to their liking. Now it is an open season for carrier bashing and there is no dearth of freelance obits. I feel that the carriers would survive this exciting transition, and would indeed survive well at that. Sure, a few casualties might be noticed, but overall carriers would re-orient their service and revenue models to respond to and leverage the altered business and technology terrain. I agree with James that a crippling factor for carriers now is the less than agile OSS/BSS legacy they have. Ironically, I also feel that their biggest asset is their billing relationship - not because they have any sort of a lock up on it, but the sheer scale and spread of it. It is very much possible to broadbase their billing options. I don't envision carriers settling for the 'efficient bit pipe' role. I think they would manage to position themselves more as the 'reliable service pipe' providers. Your observations on co-operation with the broader ecosystem and fair distribution of the revenue are extremely relevant in fashioning this repositioning. -Jobin Mohit,

Good article with many lucid points!

It is true that carriers believed that the good times would last long at their own pace. From a classical telco scale, too many things are changing too fast, and not all of those changes are to their liking. Now it is an open season for carrier bashing and there is no dearth of freelance obits.

I feel that the carriers would survive this exciting transition, and would indeed survive well at that. Sure, a few casualties might be noticed, but overall carriers would re-orient their service and revenue models to respond to and leverage the altered business and technology terrain. I agree with James that a crippling factor for carriers now is the less than agile OSS/BSS legacy they have. Ironically, I also feel that their biggest asset is their billing relationship – not because they have any sort of a lock up on it, but the sheer scale and spread of it. It is very much possible to broadbase their billing options.

I don’t envision carriers settling for the ‘efficient bit pipe’ role. I think they would manage to position themselves more as the ‘reliable service pipe’ providers. Your observations on co-operation with the broader ecosystem and fair distribution of the revenue are extremely relevant in fashioning this repositioning.

-Jobin

]]> By: James http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/01/marginalization-%e2%80%93-the-biggest-threat-to-carriers/comment-page-1/#comment-17 James Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:26:00 +0000 http://www.telecomcircle.com/mohit/?p=10#comment-17 You left out an important aspect in the equation -- the prohibitive cost of proprietary OSS software in the back office. Operators find it difficult to be agile and react to market changes through new business models, often because it it prohibitively expensive or too time consuming to have their BSS/OSS support it -- especially billing. Right now, they are forced to be relegated to their traditional one-to-one role (i.e. subscriber consumes service, carrier issues invoice, subscriber pays), as opposed to treating their subscriber base as assets to be monetized and opening up that relationship to 3rd parties. There is a new technology refresh coming to the marketplace now (last one was 2000/2001) which is largely SOA/Web Services and Open Source will help remedy this problem. Transverse (www.gotransverse.com) is taking this approach. You left out an important aspect in the equation — the prohibitive cost of proprietary OSS software in the back office. Operators find it difficult to be agile and react to market changes through new business models, often because it it prohibitively expensive or too time consuming to have their BSS/OSS support it — especially billing. Right now, they are forced to be relegated to their traditional one-to-one role (i.e. subscriber consumes service, carrier issues invoice, subscriber pays), as opposed to treating their subscriber base as assets to be monetized and opening up that relationship to 3rd parties. There is a new technology refresh coming to the marketplace now (last one was 2000/2001) which is largely SOA/Web Services and Open Source will help remedy this problem. Transverse (www.gotransverse.com) is taking this approach.

]]> By: Kobita http://www.telecomcircle.com/2009/01/marginalization-%e2%80%93-the-biggest-threat-to-carriers/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Kobita Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:07:00 +0000 http://www.telecomcircle.com/mohit/?p=10#comment-16 Hi Mohit. Good platform to debate and discuss. Will even save on VoIP costs. Some good reading here. Agreed the ecosystem is evolving towards cooperative competition. However one cant undermine the fact that he who owns the customer is king. At this points its still the carriers. I think it will be sometime before this equation changes. Till such time there isn't voluntary sharing of this customer base, carriers will be tempted to follow an age old path of strategic lethargy making it difficult for partners to fully optimize this resource. Tiny glitches like working out interconnect rates, billing, inadequate POPs, whatever. Nothing significant to raise the ire of a strong regulator, just small speed breakers. Personal perspective. Hi Mohit. Good platform to debate and discuss. Will even save on VoIP costs. Some good reading here. Agreed the ecosystem is evolving towards cooperative competition. However one cant undermine the fact that he who owns the customer is king. At this points its still the carriers. I think it will be sometime before this equation changes. Till such time there isn’t voluntary sharing of this customer base, carriers will be tempted to follow an age old path of strategic lethargy making it difficult for partners to fully optimize this resource. Tiny glitches like working out interconnect rates, billing, inadequate POPs, whatever. Nothing significant to raise the ire of a strong regulator, just small speed breakers. Personal perspective.

]]>