Video Tests The Telcos
How an industry may handle the rollout
By Ken Kerschbaumer -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/9/2005
When it comes to a global view of the telecom industry, Jim Warner, president of the TeleManagement Forum, is especially well-positioned. For more than 16 years, his organization has brought together members—including British Telecom, Bell South, Telecom Italia, Motorola and other industry forces—to hammer out technical standards related to managing and delivering services. Warner visited the B&C office in Manhattan to discuss telecom's future with Ken Kerschbaumer.
It seems that, with the rollout of video services, telecom operators like Verizon and SBC are really looking to change the definition of what a telecom company does. Are they ready for that change?
They're going to have to be. We see the industry moving towards a model that is very much like the retail fashion industry, where they'll need to turn on a dime and react to changes. Historically, they haven't been good at that. They like to take years to develop a product and then let it sit in the marketplace for years as they get their money back.
How will the introduction of video change your members?
Well, it means fiber to the home and a new network they aren't used to managing. They're used to managing long-haul fiber, not on a local-loop level. So they have a whole new management challenge, starting with the equipment in the ground all the way up to the network level and then to the services and customer level.
If they meet that challenge, what will be the difference between a telecom and a cable company in the future?
The only differentiator will be what they put in the ground. My sense is that, while they will be identical in terms of services, there will always be one better at one service than the other. The current telecom operators will have an advantage in voice services while the cable company will have an advantage in entertainment services for some time.
