As broadband and wireless internet services are more widely available to us all, the telecommunications industry is feeling the impacts as well.
The first effects were in providing an alternate means of routing digitized phone calls via conventional phone systems, so that your home phone calls, for example, might be digitized and routed via the internet instead via conventional wire means. The result was that the phone companies, who were transmitting these calls often through services and lines in the internet that they were not even maintaining, were able to achieve higher profits through these channels than through the traditional routing methods.
With the availability of very low cost to virtually “no cost” Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services such as Skype, Apple’s iChat, AOL and Yahoo “Audio” Instant Messenging services, and others, that whole world is changing rapidly. And, with the introduction of special “phones” which link directly into “WiFi” wireless networks, which are becoming more prevalent — and “free”, the price of consumer telephony is likely to drop substantially in the next few years.
What do you see as the impact of these developments on the traditional telecommunications markets? How do you think they may respond? And what do you see as the business opportunities for new strategic developments in this arena?
If you would have not listened to the episode of “Stranova Strategic Edge” that this refers to, or would like to listen to it again, please click below:
Stranova Strategic Edge, Vol. 2: The Impact of Internet Telephony
communications computing entrepreneurship Internet Business Stranova Strategic Edge VoIP