Blog by Paul Golding

Now, I don't plan on spending 2K to buy their report. I'm not sure I'd spend that kind of money on a report that promised to make me $250 Billion, but then it isn't aimed at people like me, at least not directly.

Let me be so bold as to sum up their proposition. Today, operators sell 'downstream' to people like you and I - end users. We pay them money and get a service. Contrast that with Google, who give their end-user services away (search, Gmail, docs etc.) and sell 'upstream' to advertisers.

It is interesting at this point to ask whether or not an operator could ever give services away for free with some kind of Google-like model. I can tell you that I have had plenty of entrepreneurs approach me and ask me how to architect various businesses based on such a model, usually some variant of a Blyk-like business, with various innovations on the side.

Often the conversation converges on the requirement to set up an MVNO - though not always - and entrepreneurs, at least most of them, hear the cha-ching of a heavy investment, loud enough to scare them off. The question of whether an MVNO really needs to cost an arm and a leg remains to be answered.

Here's the thing though. I bet that if we asked a Google, say, to create a back-office system for an MNO, they could do it and do it well. If we ask a telco if they can create an ecosystem like Google. Well...

So what's the opportunity for technologists and technology companies in the mobile space? Where's our slice of the $250 Billion? This clearly needs some thought, but there are definitely opportunities here.

Without access to Telco 2.0's set of use cases that demonstrate the upstream biz model, it is difficult to comment on the technological implications. However, we can perhaps offer some general comments.

The successful sale of upstream services will almost certainly require an enterprise that is capable of rich management of meta-data about mobile users, mobile usage, interactivity, relationships, trends and so on. I can attest to the difficulty of the challenge. Whilst working as Chief Apps Architect for Motorola, I frequently pushed the mantra of 'converged' services for N-play networks, which almost always meant a network that put meta-data at the heart of the architecture.

This is not easy and is compounded in many telco environments by a number of factors, including the move towards N-play networks where, generally speaking, the different networks (e.g. IPTV and mobile, say) are like chalk and cheese. Also keep in mind how difficult Yahoo found it to maintain a seamless experience for their upstream customers across the portfolio of Yahoo properties. If a Yahoo struggles with such things, what about a telco?

I don't have all the answers here, nor the time to discuss this problem in any depth in a blog - for the problem space is wide. However, I wouldn't feel shy to say that the future is Web 2.0 at the heart of the network. In the interim, SDPs will play an important role, but here it seems to me that the winner will be the operator most willing to make a radical shift in the way they run their enterprise. This is certainly an area worthy of a lot more attention.