After my somewhat acerbic criticism of telco attitudes, here's some antidote.
Telco reality #1: It isn't stupid people resisting stupid networks.
I've worked in a telco. I know a lot of people in telcos and who supply them. It isn't a glamorous industry, and probably doesn't attract as much brainpower as top web, biotech, or legal career paths. But I've not met many stupid people in the industry. Emergent outcome of operator behaviour is not coupled to the character of the people employed there.
Telco reality #2: The road from here to there is difficult and dangerous.
Operators are slow to change. People lob rocks at them for not catching up with the Internet world. But as we saw in the dotcom boom, there's no shortage of dead ends to follow and overhyped fads ready to claim another victim. Turning from a vertically integrated industry to a series of horizontal players is extremely traumatic. Caution is a virtue, not a vice -- although inaction and sloth eventually becomes fatal.
Telco reality #3: Real people, real lives.
When I was at Sprint, around 20,000 of my co-workers lost the jobs. Apart from being stressful in itself, it often means taking a new job across the country, moving our kids between schools, your spouse chaning jobs, finding a new house. Worldwide, millions of people are involved in this industry. By the time the dust settles, it's likely to have become a smaller source of employment. Making light of telcos and their pains diminishes a real social upheaval and isn't funny to those experiencing it. Ideally, the transition to a common, pervasive, community connectivity infrastructure would be smoother, but that's not going to happen in most places.
Telco reality #4: Good advice is hard to find.
This may be a self-serving comment given my consulting day job, but operators aren't fed much good advice from the top-tier consultancies. I won't name names, because I'm sure they're all similar. At Sprint the advice given was very good when it comes to generic business process re-engineering and cost cutting. But as it relates to the fundamental driver of change -- the separation of connectivity from service -- the silence was deafening.
Telco reality #5: Investors are confused and confusing.
Telcos are sent very mixed signals by their investors. One one hand, they just love the cash flow, and never want to let the cash cow out of the barn for a moment. On the other hand, they're nervous about the future, yet aren't willing to cut any slack on experiments in new business models and products. If your world only extends to the end of the next quarter, "chase the buck" could lead you over a cliff.
Telco reality #6: Operators aren't evil.
Telco managers just respond to the incentives their boards and shareholders give them (after a few stops to fill their pockets on the way...). If the heads of Verizon, BT, DoCoMo et al didn't have large lobbying efforts and strong political ties, they would be fired. They are responding to the incentives of the position they find themselves in. Whilst operators may be legal persons, imputing feelings or emotions into them is just a comfortable illusion. They are, they do, they be.
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