Lately I have been meeting a lot of old friends and they have reflected on the past. Some think that there were good old days, some feel like we have not progressed.
Back in 1996, I started working for a large carrier on the Internet Strategy and how to deliver dial up that was the equivalent of a private line circuit.
It was a fools errand, but I did not realize it at the time.
I had calculated that if I charged for the circuit at about 70 dollars, I could deliver a pre -switch interface that would protect the central office switch from blockage.
As we were progressing on our effort to create the service, AT&T declared they were offering a dial-up Internet service for under $20 “unlimited”.
And the congestion continued.
But so did the effort to reinvent the central office, which had the consequence of reinventing the carrier.
When I was working on the strategy, my boss reminded me that 70% of the company worked on Voice Grade Switched services (AKA POTS). And maybe 10% understood private line.
Likewise the cable operators had a team that as a friend put it, was the equivalent of a sprinkler installer. They could cut a pipe and put in another valve, but that was about the level of their network sophistication.
Both communications operators have come along way. Today as the Verizon manages the strike it has reduced the union workforce to 20% of what it used to be when I first made my Internet pitch.
The cable operators have not only made a triple play to compete with wireline operators but delivered a viable Wi-Fi service that goes beyond the home.
All while the customer base has found shown a willingness to abandon old business models for services that are more convenient. David Walsh the CEO of Genband points out that Amazon has become so powerful a brand that you have to to page 5 in a Google search to read about the River and not the company.
And with Facebook’s announcement of messaging bots and IBM’s Watson exemplifying machine learning we are about to go through another shift in knowledge work.
Whether we like the speed of change or not it is in motion.