The industry newsletter FierceWireless just announced the Fierce 15 for 2005.
I was curious to see that 3 of the 15 companies are focusing their business plans around the integration of mobile and Voice over IP technology. This raised a question in my head about how thrilled the wireless carriers themselves would be (or in this case not) to see customers have the ability to bypass their networks using voice over Internet. Specifically looking at environments where customers can connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to a computer or router to use the Internet to make calls. Everybody gets all worked up about users being able to use voice over Wi-Fi from hotspots, but I actually think more popular locations for this would be from work or home. Witness, for example, that Vonage and Skype recently making pushing into integrating Wi-Fi phones into their offerings, primarily intended for home or office use.
What this integration would really result in would be customers able to use their mobiles at home or work and completely bypass the carriers network. These are two places where customers spend a lot of time, so this development would really cut in to customer usage of their services. Functions like SMS and data services would also be able to bypass the carriers and run over the Internet.
One significant challenge which could represent a roadblock to consumer freedom is the question of call switching on the public telephone network. Carriers still hold a good number of cards in that regard, and its going to be a challenge to route calls over the appropriate infrastructure without their participation in some way. In other words, users will not have the convenience of a single contact number until carriers agree to play ball (or are forced to do so).
There are any number of strategic implications for companies involved in the voice and mobile services space. Wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless, Cingular and others should be prepared to focus more on custom applications and information services independent of infrastructure, including perhaps adopting the routing of calls over the Internet as a value-added service of their offerings. They should also be prepared to see a big hit in their per-minute and data usage rates and adjust their price plans accordingly.
Mobile phone manufacturers stand to take back some power from the carriers in all of this. Ive written a couple of times now about how the dominance of the carrier is putting handcuffs on manufacturers, as demonstrated by Motorolas delayed introduction of the iPhone (presumably on the objection of a major carrier partner). Once again this presents the manufacturer an opportunity to market the device independently from the carrier.
Voice over Wi-Fi and mobile virtual network operators (mentioned earlier) are just two of the many strategic issues leaders in this industry segment need to keep in mind as they move into the future.
