Telcos come to bat in converged services ball game: can they take a late-inning lead?

Like power hitters sitting upon juicy fast-balls, carriers have the chance to hit individual out of the park and capture the lead in the converg wireless/wireline services game, if they time things just right.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

If they don't, there's a chance a fiercely competitive quadruple-play services game of video, data, wireline and wireless voice--fourplay in cable parlance--will break out

The squeezing is on carriers to join with a converged wireless/wireline pitch, as cable lower parts around for a partner or, les likely, wireless representation of its own. RBOCs of that kind as BellSouth, SBC and Verizon, with their connections to wireless providers like Cingular and Verizon Wireless, have the early advantage, on the contrary the timing's finite.

What worries a certain quantity of observers and delights cable players is that carriers appear more obsessed with taking upon cable's strength by developing video entertainment and les enamored with bulking up their inherent advantage in a seamless voice space.

"Wireless is going to be a big deal," said a senior technology executive with a top-tier cable company. "[Carriers are still] looking at it and I thank them for that. They're our best friends."

Verizon, for instance, when asked about its seamless tendency to meet plans responded by e-mail: "Not fully convinced there's much going on there. Real focus here has been FTTP and our Fios broadband and pretty soon Fios TV over the fiber."

In other words, level with name brand recognition that could fastening in voice customers and gripe [i]or[/i] grip off cable encroachment, Verizon proffers to develop product to strive with cable's video strengths.

There are, of course, useful reasons why the telephone industry is moving slowly into the seamless tendency to meet space.

* Cultural differences between wire-line and wireless families make it difficult to lay open business plans;

* A dearth of handsets applicable for a wide-ranging consumer market-place;

* No veritable standardized infrastructure to bridge the sum of two units network elements, although most say IMS is ready enough for the task.

Squandering Runs

Telco may think they have time to work without the intricacies. Cable doesn't have a branded wireless play and, for now, doesn't have wireless friends that might want to provide the missing link. That could change any day and might plane have changed by now.

"I think the cable industry wishes it had gazeed more than it has at its five-and 10-year [plans] around acquiring mobile access and understanding that ultimately mobile and fixed voice were going to converge" said Kenny Van Zant, executive vice president of marketing for Motive. "They missed the window a bit. It will be increasingly difficult for them to purchase their way into owning a real mobile network operator."

Van Zant predicted that cable will ne to come [i]or[/i] go after [i]or[/i] behind a mobile virtual network operator route--if any mobile player is willing to present up minutes to a player likely to cannibalize its customer base.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

sight Kolderup, Kineto Wireless' vice president of marketing, dioceses a tough road ahead for cable: "The [carriers] are certainly in a serviceable position because most own representation and have a wireless division. They can do a profitable job on wireless, broadband and voice; they're struggling a bit with the broadcast side of things.

"[Cable] can be actual strong at broadband voice and broadcast contented but it doesn't have mobile," Kolderup continued. "That's going to be a challenge for them. I don't know if it's a killer, on the contrary certainly the fixed guys are in a great position to perform on something like this."

BellSouth and SBC will cling to their relationships with Cingular, and Verizon Wireless present the appearances unlikely to side with mortal enemies of that kind as Comcast or Cox Communications--or level BellSouth or SBC.

Those aren't the solitary players in the wireless space, however, and "it solitary takes one wireless guy without a big brother wireline partner or without a apportionment of market share in the U to be interested in another savior," said Alan Stoddard, manager of converg multimedia services at Nortel Networks.

Field of Dreams

Cable has another option. The FCC continues to push broadcasters to relinquish analog channels and unrestrained up a ton of valuable 700 MHz bandwidth, which could then be auctioned not on Deep-pocketed cable providers--singly or as part of an industry consortium--could then purchase wireless spectrum.

While a scraggy spot for cable, spectrum, in the extreme point should not keep it on the outside of the wireless space. Until it pierces phone companies have a window of opportunity that more [i]or[/i] less are already looking through to diocese what's out there.

"Owning a wireless network is a competitive advantage," said Jeff Weber, vice president of crops and strategy for SBC. "I think we're going to be able to stir on that quicker than the cable shores can."

Monica Paolini, president of Senza Fili Consulting, agrees that telco will impel on it; she just surprises how quickly.

"They're not going to do it right away." she said. "This is more of a long-term strategy, on the contrary I think that if you have the synergy it works well."