Business Week Online presents insights into the business issues of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) ... as the big telcos start to offer VOIP services, some analysts ask if they are serious about the technology, or just trying to co-opt the newcomers.
Clayton Christensen, in "The Innovator's Solution," warns about attempting to build a start up on a technology that is disruptive for some, but not all, of the major players in the established industry. Are the VOIP "monoculture" start ups doomed to be crushed by telecos who see VOIP as a sustaining technology?
Is this a "Strategic Inflection Point" ... "where the old strategic picture dissolves and gives way to the new, allowing the business to ascend to new heights" as Andy Grove defined it in "Only the Paranoid Survive"? Are there telecos able to act like Intel has for many years, and cannibalize its own business to survive the onslaught of others, as Andy Grove advised in his book?
Just some of the questions that come to mind reading Finally, 21st Century Phone Service
Posted by dougsimpson at January 7, 2004 04:59 PM | TrackBackVerizon's deal to buy VOIP hardware from Nortel signals a possible start in the investment of big telcos into VOIP. This article in the New York Times discusses the recognition of VOIP technology as bringing increased efficiency to telecom, but the reluctance of traditional competitors to be the first.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/12/technology/12phone.html?th
Will Verizon's move trigger other teleco's to similarly invest? Is this good or bad news for the VOIP start-ups trying to gain an advantage over the established companies?
Posted by: Doug Simpson at January 12, 2004 10:14 AM