I compiled the following data for a recent client report, and thought I’d share it with you all, my dear unidirectional content consumers. I was just trying to illustrate that every telco attempt at tolling at the service layer (as opposed to just connectivity) results in a complementary industry that deals with disintermediating and arbitraging those toll booths.
| Service | Toll gate | Means of bypass | Examples |
| Circuit voice | International call interconnect | Calling cards | IDT |
| Circuit voice | Premium rates for cross-network calls (e.g. mobile to mobile) | Prefix dialing of landline numbers to preserve bucket for x-net calls | www.80550.co.uk |
| Circuit voice | Roaming charges + handset lock-down | Unlocked handsets and third-party prepaid SIM | Expansys (handsets); www.oneroam.co.uk (SIM cards) |
| Circuit voice | PSTN switch | VoIP + Wi-Fi | Skype for Pocket PC |
| Telex and telegram | Gateway/separate network | Fax machine | N/A |
| Fax | PSTN switch | Fax-email gateway | eFax |
| Fax | PSTN switch | Fax-IP gateway | Mediatrix |
| MMS for photos | MMS gateway | Email + IP network; File transfer in IM applications (e.g. MSN, Skype) + IP network; SMS for notification (“check your email”); Bluetooth file transfer; face-to-face viewing; sneakernet via flash memory cards | N/A |
| SMS | Mobile originated message charges | Java/Symbian application + IP Network | SMSSend [defunct], SMSBug, Agilemobile |
| Ringtones | Download vending machine | User-created ring tones; flash memory cards or Bluetooth | Xingtone |
| Push-to-talk | Gateway/proxy | Java application + IP Network | FastMobile |
If you’ve got more ideas or examples, just stick’em in below as comments and I’ll assemble the better ones into an updated table. If this really gets big I’ll think about making a wiki page.
UPDATE: Maybe I should call this “Newton’s third law of telecom: for every mediation there is an equal and opposite disintermediation.” (The first two are “An incumbent telco will keep sucking its customers dry unless an external force is applied”, and “Profit = lobbyists x lawyers”).
Posted by Martin Geddes at 01:07 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telepocalypse.net/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/mgeddes/MT/mt-tb.cgi/502.
What I'm seeing a lot:
GSM Roaming charges
your friendly GSM provider's billing department
Notebook / hotspot, hotelroom ethernet / headset / VoIP-software
Any VoIP provider from back home.
At the last conference I visited I saw a number of people phoning home in the evening from the WLAN-enabled lobby.
Posted by: at June 14, 2005 03:29 PM