Define your terms

In one of my 2004 Telephony columns, I argued that I didn't know what a vendor or service provider meant when they used the term convergence. By 2004, convergence had already become a non-word to me, meaning almost anything. I often needed much more elucidation before I understood which convergence flavor they were trying to create. Three years later, I think I have a better handle on what convergence means in the converged infotainment space — infotainment being another new word that may reasonably represent the space.

Let's examine this equation: convergence = collaboration + coopetition. There are many types of convergence. Flavors range from the relatively simple convergence of voice and data networks and the collapse of distance-sensitive pricing (driven, respectively, by the emergence of converged IP networks and the introduction by AT&T Wireless with “all-you-can-eat” buckets) to the many-faceted convergence of telephony, broadband data and cable television businesses into triple-play offerings. Or, if we want to converge this even further by including mobility — into quad-play offerings.

Another C, content, is also becoming a driver of convergence. The owners of content must collaborate with owners of networks to drive demand and deliver the content to the buyers (usually consumers, but it's increasingly also business-to-business content) as they want it.

Actually this content/delivery collaboration is more truly coopetition. The owners of content license the use of their content for delivery by the networks, which, as we're seeing more of every day, they might actually own part of, and vice versa.

We also see industry players collaborating or coopeting at different times or points, sometimes within the same transaction. Which participant, for example, “owns” the customer, manages transactions, assures quality, does media conversions, bills for and parcels out payments when a mobile subscriber orders a video-on-demand movie to be delivered to their home TV and their mobile device — and then wants to have permission to save it and send it to someone else on a different network?

Collaboration is also becoming a near-ubiquitous term for how people in businesses work together, using many communication types (voice, data, instant messaging, short message service, unified messaging, presence and unified communications) to complete a task, service a customer or make a decision.

With the nascent promise of another convergence — fixed/mobile convergence, or FMC — making these collaborations location-, device-, mode- and media-independent with time-to-completion usually being minimized (or at least optimized).

Actually, I think there are two other Cs that must be considered before we have a current, if only temporarily, complete definition for convergence. These are consolidation and commoditization.

There is rampant industry consolidation as players keep finding ways to offer services to customers. Profitability is a growing concern. Many of the recent mega-consolidations are being driven by the desire to earn profit from scale economies. Consolidations to gain new access to, or ownership of, new customers also is a desire because, along with the convergence, many of the traditional services such as voice are being commoditized by combinations of newer, cheaper technology (think Web 2.0 or 3.0), driving out the costs of entering markets or delivering services much more economically.

This provides enough C words to ponder as we listen to providers and vendors speak about convergence at the upcoming NXTcomm and other industry events.

David Yedwab is a founding partner in Market Strategy and Analytics Partners LLC. He can be reached at (908) 879-2835 or david.yedwab@mktstrategy-analytics.com