Well — the word is finally getting out from Mobile World Congress, here, and here and here. Telcos are getting the message the hosting industry got years ago, stay pat and you will be what’s served for lunch. In other words, don’t let your pipes be dumbed down by the OTT giants. We’ve been banging this drum for a while and are happy to hear that the lunch bell also starting to resonate.
Hosters and Telcos are being assaulted on many fronts – from wickedly agile start-ups offering content, to Google and Apple and even Microsoft. The fact is, Telcos, like the hosters before them, already have many factors in their favor that these start-ups and technology giants do not have.
Telcos are in a position of strength because they control the entire messaging structure through their access to the user’s phone number and usage data. The established billing relationship is a great advantage, as is the fact that Telcos control to a great extent the services to which their users are exposed. They are known, respected and most importantly, local companies. On a matter of scale, start-ups and the big three simply cannot provide the immediacy nor the touch that they can. This gets exceedingly important to customer “stickiness.” Local Telcos not only have great advantages but a strong position that needs to be vocalized – current relationships, the infrastructure to transport data, cable infrastructure, established billing and known brands. Telcos are able to deliver the benefits of a cloud-based subscription model, but without the dependency of the Internet providing scalability and delivered over a secure, private, high availability network.
When Telcos, again, like Hosters before them, can provide their customers (SMBs, enterprises, etc.) business-class email and collaboration, they add yet another level to the customer experience. NOT just an added revenue stream (nothing wrong with the, right?), but added brand strength, multiple new touch points outside of the most universal products and services and new channels, everywhere your users are.
So Telcos, if you are up to the challenge, lets get smart and use your (vocal) pipes to go beat up some giants.
