Cloud Telephony
2010 Predictions about Cloud Telephony
Now that we are well into the new year, and the dust has settled on the annual predictions from all of the popular industry experts, I would like to add my own observations to the mix.
Thoughts About Clouds
My thoughts about the evolution of cloud computing and cloud telephony.
The Evolution of the Telecommunications Industry
The Telecom Industry Evolves: From "Old" and "New", to App-Focused Telcos
Over the past 20 years the telecommunications industry has undergone two fundamental transitions: first, from "old telco" to "new telco" and now, to application-focused telcos.
As Martin Fransman, Professor of Economics at the University of Edinburgh wrote:
The Telephone Technology Pendulum and AnyPhone Technologies
Arthur Schopenhauer a German Philosopher, wrote an often misstated quotation, "Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom". We can apply this quotation in general to technology and specifically to telephony. Telephony technology swings between complacency and advancement. In these exciting times, when telephone technologies are rapidly advancing, we are often faced with the pain of innovation.
The Great CLEC Squeeze
As a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the number of CLECs providing telephone services exploded. A CLEC (competitive exchange carrier) provides telephone services by leasing local loops (phone lines) and interconnecting those local loops to their own or sub-contracted long distance services. For most of the past 23 years, CLECs have primarily competed with the incumbent telephone carriers (ILECs) on price. Those days are over.