CREATIVE BLOCK

It's been too long since the last great new service entered the consumer consciousness. True, it's a tall order to invent the next Caller ID. The process of organic service creation has historically taken millions of dollars and years of research, and the uptake for even revolutionary services such as Caller ID is relatively slow. But the rewards for such services — for both consumers and providers — is indisputable, and the carriers responsible for creating them are simply being lazy. Maybe that's partly because the motivation to invent new services no longer exists. After all, now that most CLECs are on the run, incumbents — and especially the Bell companies — are sitting back and basking in their easy victory. And for a crowd that can't even get DSL right, maybe asking for the next killer service is too great an expectation. But this shift in the competitive market is the very reason the Bell companies should take advantage of their position. Imagine the possibilities if a carrier were to invent a service that tied together a customer's landline phone, PC, mobile handset and PDA. If such a service provided customers with a single unique IP address, the stickiness factor would push that provider ahead of the competition. Enhanced services such as Call Waiting and Caller ID have long proved to be huge moneymakers for the carriers that provide them. But perhaps the greater motivation should be the strengthened ability to keep customers.