Monday 1 November 2010

My blog manifesto

The communications industry helps shape the world we live in. It offers great hope such as allowing poor workers in remote countries/areas access to vital communications that can help stimulate their economy and improve their livelihood. It offers new ways to keep us entertained such as the web, video on demand and immersive virtual reality shows (although this may not always be positive). In the future it also offers the opportunity to change our lives in ways that have not been dreamed of yet.

Over the last two decades communications have changed beyond all recognition. This growth has unleashed untold wealth and some minnows have become giants such as Vodafone. However like all periods of growth, it has unleashed greed, promoted incompetents and stiffled innovation. In the cellular industry, today we have one trick ponies: the only sales propositions that are understood are coverage and tariffing - even here it is doubtful that many have understood what coverage means to customers. Today O2 in the UK "mulls the use of femtocells for LTE". Well guys here is a reality check - you need to fix 3G first! At the same time, many operators lack any imagination on what they could do to create new revenue streams. Google makes billions out of what people look for on the net, cellular operators get rid of it. Sensible?

So this blog aims to shine a spotlight on what is good and bad. It is not all about doom but also hope and how we could all do better!