The Rise of Competitive Cloud
Adding fuel to the fire, the way people communicate has changed. Many telco customers are continuing to cut the cord for VoIP and mobile telephony services, and the number of homes without landline service has tripled in the past five years. To make matters worse, social media and other next-generation communication services are further eroding traditional telco revenues. Last year Ovum analyst Neha Dharia reported, “The loss sustained [in 2012] due to social messaging will amount to approximately $9 billion more than in 2011.” As these local telephone companies stare natural selection in the face, many will be confronted with a grave ultimatum: evolve or die.
Bloomfield sees innovation as an integral component of the rural telco strategy for those seeking to transform. “Even as we continue to fight for sufficient and predictable cost-recovery mechanisms that enable sustainable broadband deployment, rural providers should be considering innovative offerings where possible to leverage their technical expertise and local presence — and many already are,” she says.
“These offerings can include partnerships with local energy, healthcare or educational enterprises, or providing new lines of service that may include expert support for users’ cloud computing, IT and home networking needs. As we look to the future, innovative thinking and economies of scale are going to be key.”
She adds, “Nothing spurs innovation like a need not yet met. And rural carriers are certainly well positioned to know the needs of their respective communities and make thoughtful decisions about how to convert those needs to meet consumer demands.”
The picture isn’t all bleak, as the push for rural broadband and connected farms continues to gain attention, support and momentum. Evolution takes many forms: one likely scenario is that many smaller operators will consolidate, and in not-so-traditional ways. In fact, some rural telcos are already banding together to share infrastructure, systems and management.
“We’re seeing more and more rural telecom providers come together to set up federated back offices to share resources such as provisioning, inventory, billing, and marketing to better serve regional markets and offer Fortune 500 enterprise services,” says Marc Hayden, executive vice president of sales for CHR Solutions.
These opportunities are drawing significant attention, and technology providers are rallying to help rural incumbents become more competitive. In the case of CHR Solutions, it sees these opportunities as key enablers not only to help rural LECs survive, but also for them to thrive.
“We’re very much invested in seeing our customers thrive,” Hayden says. “We help competitive carriers evaluate non-regulatory business models and then assist them in the planning and execution of them.”
CHR is in a good position to know, too. The company is celebrating its 75-year anniversary and has helped its customers weather five major regulatory and economic challenges over the company’s 75-year history, and is considered a one-stop shop to CSPs worldwide for business process outsourcing, engineering services, software solutions, and technology-managed services.
