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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: 1) by fliptop on Friday February 28 2014, @08:42PM

    by fliptop (1666) on Friday February 28 2014, @08:42PM (#8913) Journal

    People don't want their electricity company to provide their fridge, or their gas company to provide a boiler.

    I have to disagree, my Dad worked for BG&E [bge.com] for 42 years and we always bought our appliances from their store at the mall. In fact, he felt their decision to close their appliance stores [baltimoresun.com] was unfortunate. Quote from the linked article:

    "Discounting created lower margins, [and] expenses were increasing," Munn said. "We were getting squeezed on margins even though our customers were faithful."

    They had been selling appliances since 1904, btw.

    --
    If you have second thoughts about booking a trip to an Indian casino, is it a reservation reservation reservation?

  • (Score: 1) by glyph on Saturday March 01 2014, @01:16AM

    by glyph (245) on Saturday March 01 2014, @01:16AM (#8974)

    Your dad still had the choice. Most national telcos sell phones retail, and that's fine. We have the choice to buy elsewhere. Back in the day most telcos SUPPLIED the phone, and you were forbidden from connecting anything else to their network. Technology was stagnant for decades. We don't want to return to those days, but you can bet carriers do.