Telephony Live: Redefining tomorrow’s service provider

CHICAGO – In the past, a service provider could be succinctly defined as the network operator. Yet as telephony providers get into television, traditional software companies like Apple and Google develop their own operating systems and content providers bypass the wireless operators entirely, the definition is anything but clear-cut. At today’s Telephony Live conference in Chicago, four industry executives discussed their views of the service provider of tomorrow with the one common theme that service provider and network operator are no longer one in the same.

“It has been traditionally voice traffic – the ones who ran networks were service provider,” said Perry LaForge, founder, executive director and chairman at CDMA Development Group (CDG). “As business models evolve and they start moving into videos and content, things they don’t necessarily own, they have to start partnerships that are different.”

As an example, LaForge pointed out that AT&T partnering with Apple was a different model for them and, from the end consumers’ point of view, most would say Apple was the driving service provider. Granted, only a few industry players have the clout that Apple commands, but the service provider role is clearly in flux. “The traditional perception of network operators will stay the same, but it wouldn’t take much to think of Google trying to put more brand emphasis behind Xohm,” LaForge said. “That would change the perception of what Xohm is about…we’ll see a blurring of our vision based on branding, content.”

Jeff Thompson, CEO of Towerstream, added that a reason for the changing definition is that most things that start in the fixed world end up going mobile. The wireless ISP uses mobile WiMax in a fixed wireless configuration and is launching mobile WiMax over the unlicensed spectrum. Thompson said that Towerstream’s view of the service provider is about being able to deliver a pipe that can transmit any information without attempting to predict what those services will be.

“Everyone wants the experience at a desktop on mobile,” Thompson said. “At Towerstream, we still stick by delivering the quality pipe. We are a lean business. It’s hard to be focused and not get into all the pipes. It doesn’t mean people aren’t using VoIP and video or VPN over our networks, because they are, but you still have to own those pipes.”