The best and worst of 2008

Value chain

In the never-ending quest to avoid being a dumb pipe, service providers instead are shoehorning themselves into a variety of industry value chains (advertising, content delivery, etc.). But the real difference between the pipe and the chain is … ?

4G

See “Why we're sick of 4G” on page 21.

Targeted

Until there's an ad that's tailored to a specific individual's age, gender, eye color and cocktail preference, “targeted” and other terms such as “personalized,” “granular” and “customized” will remain buzzwords.

Open

Like “light” and “healthy,” “open” now is used to describe almost anything and mean almost anything — therefore having no meaning at all.

Quality of experience

If you want to sound like you know all there is to know about video delivery, just mention concern for your customers' QOE. It apparently encompasses the clarity of the picture, the speed of the channel change and the right amount of butter on the popcorn.

Buzzwords of 2007 that Stuck or Disappeared

2.0 Adding 2.0 to a new product still is as popular as saying the “final frontier of X” or a “next-generation X,” but at least those alternatives are better than “It's like X on steroids.” Since when are steroids a good thing? As a useful term, however, 2.0 has lost its relevance.

Convergence This has been an evergreen buzzword, but in 2008 it definitely lost much of its shine, being shoved aside by “bundle” and the more specific “fixed/mobile convergence.” Now talking about convergence is a quicker way to show your age than admitting you liked the Pets.com sock puppet.

Green This term moved from marketing to reality in 2008. Rather than just talk about how it's not easy being green, telcos improved energy efficiency, lowered their carbon footprints and reduced power consumption. But the bigger challenge remains in helping businesses and consumers use telecom technologies to go green, too, and the focus there is likely to be on saving money first, then the environment.

Mashup Once cool, this term is hanging around as a descriptor, but real-world examples are rare. This is more something 50-ish execs use to impress their teenage kids.

Open This is still on our buzzword list (see page 17), but the meaning keeps changing.