INHERITING THE EARTH

A fundamental shift is occurring in the access vendor market. The large, traditional equipment manufacturers such as Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Alcatel have given up on the idea that they can provide everything to every carrier. No big surprise there. In fact, big systems integrators like Accenture and EDS have long filled in the gaps through outsourcing arrangements for important tasks such as billing and maintenance, as well as the mundane but all-important work of getting equipment to work together in a cohesive network. The revelation is the latest group to step into the breach: distributors, small engineering firms and equipment refurbishers. Companies such as Somera, which made its bones in the equipment refurbishment market. Now the company is providing turnkey wireless backhaul solutions to Sprint PCS under a program that relies more on marketing short return on investment time frames than on cutting edge technology. And in the closing months of 2002, Black and Veatch ran a series of seminars extolling the virtues of broadband deployment in small rural towns. Both programs would have been natural extensions for the traditional vendors just a few years ago. However, given the new realities of telecom economics, in which the economics are all that matter, we are quickly heading toward a future in which the largest vendors have become only shells of their former shelves. A host of smaller companies have emerged and will pick up the pieces that are left behind.