Verizon’s Digital Media Services initiative has been somewhat of a yawn to the press but it’s of great interest to other operators and also to some vendors. Verizon is now launching another program, called the Verizon Strategic Initiatives Council, and this one could be even more important. Perhaps the most significant thing about it is that it brings into the open something that’s been happening behind the scenes at most of the larger network operators.
Light Reading is reporting that the early efforts of the council are focused on things like wellness, security, home monitoring, and smart home and energy management. All that appears to be true, but these also seem to be the flagship applications that are expected to bring focus to a larger question, which is how to create “services” in an age where the network isn’t enough. Dare I hope that this might bring some long-needed clarity and impetus to service-layer planning by vendors? Hope, I guess. Assurance is still another matter.
What’s so interesting about the Verizon move so far is that it’s being brought to market through a partnership, at least in its wellness manifestation. Given that VDMS is also a partnership strategy, it sure looks like Verizon at least has decided that the wholesale-feature route is the way to go to market. That would create an interesting new model of services, one that doesn’t pit the operators against the OTTs but rather creates a partnership in the feature area. Telcos and cablecos might offer wholesale features in a growing variety of flavors, which OTTs would roll into an even-more-diverse set of retail offerings. Of course, this is all predicated on other operators following Verizon’s lead—which I think they will.
In the broad global world, the death of bin Laden is clearly seen by the Street as a near-term risk factor, and we’ll probably see slippage in stocks for a day or so even if nothing concrete happens. Whether the world is a safer place in the longer term is hard to say. The growing political unrest in Arab countries probably undermines terrorism more than the death of any given leader of any movement; a political solution—even revolution—offers an alternative to terroristic reaction to conditions. Many movements are killed when a charismatic leader dies, but there are many movements out there and we’ll have to see what emerges.