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Let us consider the state of the contemporary communications service provider (CSP).

After decades of being the go-to sources for specialized services (voice from telcos, video from cablecos, etc.), CSPs are in a place of being expected to do more (triple-play options and beyond) or, in many cases, not do much of anything at all.

The rise of the over-the-top provider has created, as we all well know, a situation in which traditional...

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The race for broadband stimulus is a source of much attention in the United States. Leap Wireless, partnering with One Economy, applied for a grant in order to provide wireless broadband in five cities to low-income individuals. Level 3 has plans to apply under the plan of providing service to underserved regions. Larger companies, like Qwest, AT&T, Comcast, have decided not to apply for funding. Verizon Wireless is also unlikely to apply. Still, all told, 2,200 applicants have submitted applications for a total of 28 Billion USD.

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Communications media, be they Internet-born or from the CSP world, enable and create communities. Websites like Facebook and LinkedIn reveal this effect in the online social media behavior they encourage. There’s a river of human behavior information that flows through communications and media providers. Some of it is collected in small buckets, and some of that is analyzed. However, most of what’s out there is still… out there: A frontier to explore where sociology, group psychology, and the viral effect interact.

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Telecommunications has undergone a massive, worldwide overhaul over the course of the last few decades.  POTS networks have been replaced, refitted, renovated, modified, and, in some parts of the world, dug up and sold for scrap.  Wireless communications have become far more prevalent than they were just a short time ago.  Bandwidth has increased exponentially.  Data networks have revolutionized business, news media, and social relationships and networking.

Here I am on an airplane trying to write an article for Pipeline about alternative ways for communications service providers to make money. That reminds me that, much like telecommunications, air transportation is also a capital-intensive business: subject to fickle customer sentiments, constantly searching for ways to increase revenues and/or reduce costs, and often successful in annoying their customers in the process. 

Yes, the core business of airlines is cramming people into steel and aluminum cylinders that...

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Seeking to strike a balance between remaining within their core competencies, while still generating significant revenues, many telcos today are looking to monetize “network platform” services like billing, location-based data, and security. Aspects of the business model to accomplish this task have been explored extensively in various forums, most recently by STL Partners’ Telco 2.0 initiative. In addition, coverage by a number of other analyst firms (such as Ovum), economic papers (like Evans, Hagiu & Schmalensee’s Invisible Engine), and...

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Once a year, Pipeline takes the opportunity to sit down with the people who bring to us the most significant telecom trade show in North America - SUPERCOMM.  For this year’s show the responsibility rests with co-producers EXPOCOMM  LLC and Reed Exhibitions.

Pipeline recently talked with Jan Maciejewski, managing director, EXPOCOMM LLC, to get some insight on SUPERCOMM 2009, which returns to Chicago’s McCormick Place this coming October 21-24.

“If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with” 

Most of you who are reading this letter are employed by Communications Service Providers.  Therefore, I have little doubt that if I asked you about your vision for a perfect world, that in addition to a garage full or Ferraris and a live-in masseuse and a spouse with the looks of Brangelina and the brains of Stephen Hawking,..