Mobile Operators Told To Fear The Internet
from the do-so-at-your-own-risk dept
There's been a ton of buzz this week coming out of the 3GSM conference in Spain concerning the coming wave of fixed-mobile convergence, with VoIP-on-mobile-phones being one area that gets lots of attention. However, if you pay attention to the details almost all of the announcements are about handsets hitting the market. There's very little about mobile operators being willing to offer handsets that will offer cellular service and VoIP service. That's because, as has been pointed out repeatedly, doing so would eat away at their voice minutes. So, remember that every time you hear some analyst firm talk about how big these converged offerings are going to be. That said, there will be some adoption going forward, as some mobile operators will take the plunge in attempts to differentiate their offerings. How far they push things, though, will be an important indicator. With all of that said, it's still amusing to see articles talking up just how big a "threat" the internet is to mobile operators. When you read news articles talking about how something is a threat, smart executives start combing through that threat to figure out where the opportunity is -- because any threat is usually a misunderstood opportunity to open up a bigger market by serving customers better. The real question is whether any of the big incumbents will recognize that -- or if they'll do their best to stomp out any upstarts who try to show them the way.
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future of 'cell' phones
with the cell networks that are already established these cell companies should refocus their efforts to provide their own wireless internet to more devices(internet over gsm pcmcia cards or something?) and CHEAP INTERNET (rather than extremely expensive and 'against the terms'/unsupported internet access..)
They can either rely on their old (trap you in)business model until it becomes outdated and overtaken by wifi, or offer the same benefits that wifi is promising to eliminate that threat and gain millions of new customers
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Err, what can they do?
More importantly to me: the wireless carriers' attempts to "add value" in fact destroy value. I just subscribed last week to wireless service for a new phone line. I talked to friends and colleagues and then went for the carrier with the fewest drawbacks. That's a pretty terrible way to run your business: when your customers hold their noses when doing business with you!
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Re: Err, what can they do?
Well said.
Internet is a threat for the mobile operators. No doubt about that. They are very right in being scared, because small scale competitors can cut out big slices of their businesses for pennies.
The point is that, since Internet on mobile phones will be a bonus for users, then all users, and politicians, and everyone who is not financially involved with mobile operators, must do their best to help this innovation to happen, and mobile operators should be playing fairly enough to allow it to happen.
But, still, you can't ask them to be happy about it.
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Re: Err, what can they do?
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bad for certain operators
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