The content tussle

"If we could only take carriers out of the equation, things would be great."

This is a paraphrase of something we used to hear a lot at industry events like Comdex and the Western Cable Show, and more recently at the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment show, the autumn companion to Wireless 2004, which finished up today in Atlanta. If you were at this week's show, or talked to someone who was there, you might have heard it this week, too, as content application developers, vendors on content delivery systems, and other members of the budding mobile content ecosystem vented frustration over the delays and complications that arise in dealing with mobile carriers.

It's clear that some people in the content world believe mobile networks can become dumb pipes for their applications, and carrier executives the mere custodians who keep everything in order. Carrier purchasing and partnership processes tend to be long and labyrinthine, and the some of content folks simply don't feel that carriers are up to the task of getting their content to users as quickly as the market demands.

Carriers, meanwhile, stress the actual quickness with which they are upgrading their networks to support richer content delivery--evidenced by Verizon Wireless progress this week on its national CDMA 1X EV-DO project. It's also clear that the carriers want some involvement in the content ecosystem itself, either by partnering with content giants and aggregators, or educating themselves about different demographics and finding unique applications on their own that can differentiate them from other carriers.

It's unclear who will most influence whom, and who will end up dragging whom kicking and screaming into the future. Carriers certainly have to see that content firms, especially the multimedia giants with the best-known brands, might soon throttle the carrier world by launching focused MVNOs that use mobile networks, but push the carrier label into the background. Should it gain steam, that trend could change the complexion of the mobile industry as we know it.

On the other hand, the content folks have to realize that anything they do depends on the carriers, from both a network ownership and customer ownership perspective. Big-brand MVNOs with tight customer relationships still have to start from scratch, and there is more to the business than brand marketing. They can talk about dumb pipes, but until they know how to manage quality of service and providing a consistent customer experience over that pipe, that talk is all they have. No amount of talk can change the fact that carriers are in charge for now, and it's their position to lose.

E-mail me at doshea@primediabusiness.com.