Closing the gap

The telecom industry has a bad habit of talking about new consumer services for years before they are delivered. For example, the industry has been talking about advanced home networks for years, but today only true technophiles have homes with automated energy control systems that can be remotely controlled. If anything, the proliferation of technology in the home with digital media has made things more difficult and confusing rather than less.

Similarly, fixed/mobile convergence has been discussed widely for several years, but as my colleague Joan Engebretson notes in this issue, no one has a fully baked FMC consumer service deployed in scale.

In each of these examples, it's not a lack of technology that is the problem. The technology exists in both cases — in fact, in the case of the home network, we are swimming in technology. But translating available technology into sustainable, scalable, supportable services for the mass-market consumer audience is where things get tricky.

Given the pace at which wireline access revenues are diminishing, however, telecom service providers no longer have the luxury of time when it comes to figuring out how to speed up their new consumer offerings. Not only do telecom players need to quickly get new service revenues into the pipe, they need to stop the further erosion of a core customer base before the cord is cut for good.

One way to accomplish both goals is to be more open to partnerships with consumer electronics companies, many of which are eager to team up with a large telecom operator. Given that some of the most innovative of these companies are smaller, venture-capital-backed firms, such a partnership will require a leap of faith.

In addition, telecom service providers need to be willing to take a few risks in more quickly bringing new services to market. This goes against the grain for most in the industry — but so does sitting back and watching your best customers leave.

Tough economic times are predicted for the near future, and getting consumers to open their wallets for new service offerings may seem unlikely. On the other hand, in this era of “staycations” and energy consciousness, services that bring new entertainment into the home and offer new capabilities for controlling the cost of heating and cooling could well have appeal.