The Phone Company is Dead...Long Live the Phone Company!

Last week we proposed a rather gloomy theatrical assessment of the long-term trends that ultimately erase the value of the traditional phone company as a business. Voice interactivity is becomes a feature of the applications and services that users acquire from an increasingly diverse set of (non-telco) sources. The play closes with the body of the phone company slumped in the stage corner, the spotlight fading to black. However, this production need not be a tragedy, let alone a farce. There are things network operators can do to transform themselves so that when time is called on telephony they have moved on already. (Read More)

Telco 2.0 Survey - Only 18% Confident in Industry's Future

Thanks to the 250 of you that have participated in the first week of the Telco 2.0 Trends survey. We are not going to 'reveal all' yet since the survey is still running. Survey closes 1st December - click here to have your say on a.) sustainability of business models, b.) the timing of key 'Tipping points' c.) what needs to change. 15 minutes investment gets you a free summary of the report in December. Tell your colleagues! Here are some initial results... (Read More)

Ten Things I Hate About Internet Services

At the Telco 2.0 Industry Brainstorm in October, securities analyst James Enck gave a hammering list of reasons why investors are shy of putting their money into telecom operator stocks. Whilst telcos need to play to their strengths, it is where those strengths are opposed to weaknesses in the Internet players that the biggest opportunities can be seen. So here are Ten Things to Hate About Internet Services. (Read More)

Social Networking - Operator Strategies re MySpace, Bebo, YouTube, Second Life

The rush to embrace social networking by mobile operators continues with the news this week that MySpace is in discussions with mobile operators in the UK about a tie-up. This is in addition to the expected announcement of a deal between MySpace and Cingular in the US. Two strategies ('Organic' vs 'Partnering') and two business models ('User Charges' vs 'Ad-Funded') are emerging. (Read More)

Digital Youth - How to penetrate the College Student Market?

Sub tv media is a remarkable 'media' company with much that telcos, brand advertisers and others in the value chain can learn from. Their market is the 2.2m higher education student market in the UK - ABC1 18-24 year olds with a spending power of £20 billion (GBP) per annumn (of which £1bn is on mobile phones). Sub tv have secured exclusive 10 year service contracts with 95 institutions across the country, representing 85% of this market. They provide a golden combination of broadcast, hardware, mobile phone and portal services. (Read More)

Telco 2.0 Industry Brainstorm, 27-29 March, London - Ready for bookings

The event site is now up here. We are currently processing speaker and sponsor applications to be part of it. In the meantime, we're delighted to confirm Pearce Connolly, Vice President of Football at Telenor as a stimulus presenter in the Digital Home workstream. He says: "We have a fresh approach to content. We are very actively engaged in cross-platform content: combining rights content with club content and enabling user-generated content to link it all together. It's a big bet as we've paid a premium price for rights to football. We are looking at challenges related to user experience (my main focus), technology, business and perhaps the biggest challenge of all - the existing organisation. If we do this right we can export the model to our international mobile operations..."
(Early bird discounts here) http://www.telco2.net/event/

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Telco 2.0™ Industry Brainstorm 27-29 March, London