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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 rogueippacket on Friday February 28 2014, @01:31PM

    by rogueippacket (2793) on Friday February 28 2014, @01:31PM (#8623)

    Unfortunately, there is exactly no profit to be had from providing dumb pipes beyond a regional scale. Not to mention the fact that your local utility puts the lines in the ground once and then just maintains them - those gas and transmission lines don't change very often, and customers don't expect 10-100x more capacity every decade either.

    I completely agree most telcos suffer from inflated egos coupled with a poor understanding of what their customers actually want, but those added services (home phone, IPTV, alarm systems, etc.) for the masses are what subsidize the cost and growth of the networks we want. It may only cost a thousand bucks to bring gigabit fiber to your home, but until the telcos and content providers figure out how to play in the same sandbox without calling each other bad names, there's no point - you'll only get those gigabit speeds to nearest CO, not the content you want.

    Not to mention the various regulatory agencies crying foul whenever the two try to merge...

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