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Zuckerberg Dines with European Telco Execs

posted by Dopefish on Friday February 28 2014, @08:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the nickle-and-dime dept.

strattitarius writes "Mark Zuckerberg met with top mobile and telco executives to address concerns that Internet providers are becoming "simple pipes" as apps like WhatsApp eat into high-margin over-the-top services such as text messaging and even voice communications. Orange SA CEO Stephane Richard stated "The risk for us is being excluded from the world of services".

It would seem that the telcos are realizing that they have been behind the curve as Richard stated "A service like WhatsApp, to be honest, that's something we could've and should've come up with before". Ironically in doing so, they basically make the case that they had every chance and advantage to create these apps and monetize them just as WhatsApp and Skype have done."

 
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  • (Score: 0) by elgrantrolo on Friday February 28 2014, @10:14AM

    by elgrantrolo (1903) on Friday February 28 2014, @10:14AM (#8500) Journal

    [...]is having a few billion the way to get respect and entry into that club?[...]

    Yes! That would be a valid criteria in my opinion.
    Another one is that When Facebook becomes a messaging service for many millions worldwide, they certainly start qualifying as a player in the telecom field. A player that did not have to dig up streets and install cables all over the place, and therefore grew substantially with an effort that is quite different to that of the POTS companies.
    The traditional players must be keen to find a way to push the market in a way that is not 100% sales for FB and 100% infrastructure and customer service costs for them.

    I don't know who the parasite here is, probably they'll be talking about peering agreements so that when FB/whatsapp videochat becomes significant traffic they can all live together in peace, or with some rents to pay, like netflix.

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