By all accounts, 2010 will mark a sea change (or several) in the telecom industry, with an accompanying shift in the competitive landscape. In this special for VON and Billing & OSS World, xchange editor Tara Seals talks to execs at AT&T, Google, Clearwire, Comcast, XO and others about where the biggest trends, opportunities and threats are going forward. Here's an excerpt of that conversation.
How do the broad trends of cloud services, VoIP, the rise of over-the-top players and widespread broadband mobility impact the business and the general competitive landscape going forward?
Comcast Corp.’s Cathy Avgiris, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Voice and Wireless Services: Quality of service will still be an issue. If you can’t get good coverage in your home, then you’ll still need home phone service and we think having a facilities-based service that has the ability to converge with video and Internet services will be highly compelling and a true differentiator for us.
Google Inc.’s Richard S. Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel: Technology has led to a dramatic increase in the pace of innovation, and things aren't slowing down. The Internet is the fastest growing communications medium in history.
We're in the midst of massive shift in computing, from a desktop-centric model to a cloud computing model, where data and content lives in the network cloud and you access and use it whenever, wherever, and however you want to. We're only just starting to scratch the surface of how we use mobile devices. There are 270 million wireless subscribers in the United States today – just a decade ago, a mobile phone was a novelty. More and more people are accessing the Web from their phones.
What are the biggest new opportunities that are arising from the shifting sands of competition?
AT&T Inc.’s Roman P. Pacewicz, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Application Services: We have always been – and will continue to be – a networking company. After all, it’s the “network” that connects people and resources so things get done. In simple terms, our strategy is to deliver network, computing and application services to any device, and transform the way these services are used by the customers we serve.
