We have been saying for sometime that telecom operators urgently needed to think beyond their core voice business. Mobile, beyond voice, is what we wrote about incessantly in the past two years. Here’s more reason:
Google entered a new business beyond Internet search on Wednesday with a service within Gmail to make phone calls over the Web to landlines or cellphones.
The service will thrust Google into direct competition with Skype, the Internet telephone company, and with telecommunications providers. It could also make Google a more ubiquitous part of people’s social interactions by uniting the service for phone calls with e-mail, text messages and video chats.
“It’s one place where you can get in touch with the people that you care about, and how that happens from a network perspective is less important,” said Charles S. Golvin, a telecommunications analyst at Forrester Research.
Gmail has offered voice and video chat for two years, but both parties must be at their computers. Google said the new service would work well for people in a spot with poor cellphone reception or for those making a quick call from their desk.
5 Comments
LYG
Success would be depend on the revenue model used, since the termination rates of the local operators would still valid.
Rohan Samarajiva
Interesting. As long as people continue to receive calls on handsets that are connected to networks that they subscribe to for voice services, yes, the telcos can live off termination revenues.
But why would people want to use one instrument and mode for originating calls and another for receiving? After a short transition, they will do both origination and termination off gmail. The telco will now get only payment for the broadband connection. Voice will have to be seen as a bundled service that come with it.
This is why telcos must come up with revenue sharing schemes for applications providers. That could be what saves them.
Rohan Samarajiva
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/google-shakes-it-up-again-with-free-phone-calls/?src=me&ref=general
Social Safety Nets & the State of Poverty in Sri Lanka: Release of New Survey Findings
LIRNEasia will be holding an event titled Social Safety Nets and the State of Poverty in Sri Lanka on Wednesday 7 June, 2023 at 1000-1200hrs in Colombo, which will involve a presentation of the findings of a recent nationally representative survey of 10,000 Sri Lankan households conducted by LIRNEasia, followed by a panel discussion, with representation of stakeholders from government, multi-lateral donor organizations, and civil society.
LIRNEasia Chair speaks on the inauthenticity of content in internet regulation
LIRNEasia Chair, Rohan Samarajiva delivered the keynote address on Day 1 of ICA Manipal Regional Hub 2023, organised by the Manipal Institute of Communication, titled: Inauthenticity of content in internet regulation: Who decides and how?
Sri Lanka Social Safety Net Survey: Survey Methodology Note
Sri Lanka Social Safety Net Survey: Survey Methodology Note
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
15 1/2, Balcombe Place, Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2023 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific