IPUrbia

Peter of Rad-Info recently blogged about the 10 things that he hates about telecom, a list that to some degree or another matches some of my gripes about the industry. Most of his list centers around the CLECs and their lack of vision, innovation, or ability to compete in an industry that is no longer regulated into forcing ILECs to fund obscene profit margins for glorified resellers. Still, I’m not sure that “hate” really describes my feelings; “pity” might be a better term. Too many of these guys still fail to see the writing on the wall that has been visible for at least 5 years and can’t seem to get over a couple of unfavorable FCC rulings, move on, and make money.

Nevertheless, it has left me wondering about the state of innovation in the industry these days, which is more or less stagnant. Perhaps it is just a sign of the maturing market, but, sad as it may be, most of the innovation lately in network deployment is all too often coming out of the big guys (AT&T’s IPTV over ADSL2, Verizon FiOS, etc…) and not too much out of the smaller crowd, which is content to rehash the same old business VoIP solutions but has really not brought anything new to the table for several years now.

Most of the actual innovation these days is actually happening in the software / application sector, which is inevitable since it is considerably simpler to throw up another web 2.0 application than it is to build out network infrastructure of any notable size. And…even that is perhaps is at a lull; I may just be getting jaded in my (not all that) old age, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen anything that has really impressed me. Too much of the telecom application space these days seems to also be centered around 1001 ways to save $5 a month on your telephone bill. A lot of clever hacks, sure, but nothing that one would call revolutionary by any means.

Still, I’m not sure that lack of innovation in terms of “new” is really what is needed right now, but rather innovation in terms of refinement. While new technology is fun and exciting, I don’t know that telecom needs the next big thing nearly as much as it needs someone to actually to the last few old things REALLY WELL. There’s too much “flakiness”, too much that is still too difficult to be accessible on a mass-market level, too much that is simply broken, and too many ill-conceived implementations whose shortcomings are glossed over through a combination of glitzy marketing and lack of competition. The real trick over the next ten years, I think, won’t be to be the first to the next big thing, but to be the one who actually actually does something quite remarkable and actually delivers a good product and service.