Providers of tomorrow should wake up today

America's Network, August 1, 2004 by Ken Russell

The "7 Experts" article (America's Network June 15) includes some sage advice from the guest panelists, but I have to say that there is a serious need for a stronger message for most of the businesses in our industry.

After walking the aisles of Supercomm, it was obvious that (with a few notable exceptions) unless the vendors were selling batteries, racks or cables, they were probably standing in front of their exhibits saying "Me, too."

Those who were not nervously trying to answer questions that they really weren't prepared to answer were busy visiting with the new, young companies that have been doing business with the independent ISP community for years, arranging strategic alliances to help them become next-generation service companies by emulating independent ISPs.

Looking down the aisles, I saw mostly dinosaurs, vendors and carriers, many of whom are on the verge of extinction.

Companies incapable of establishing trusted electronic relationships and structured alliances facilitated by established standards will begin to define the new "Telecommunications Overworld". My own view is that this new "establishment" has been largely defined by the old, bulletin board operators, ISPs, and even public-safety communications officials who moved hobbyist level communications projects into position to become the new mainstream next-generation infrastructure.

This is happening at a time when the majority of investment capital in telecom has been driven from the U.S.

Success in the decade ahead means facilitating participation from all players, instead of trying to hoard the market for individual advantage. TCP/IP never was the best protocol solution, but it was ubiquitous. The sleeping giant is about to awaken and will rock old, established enterprises back onto their heels.

Ken Russell

CEO, Community Harbor

Nashville, Tenn.

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