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June 29, 2004

Survival of the Fittest: The effects of too many VoBB Service Providers

One of my take aways from Supercomm last week was that there are still quite a number of would-be service providers operating in Stealth mode working out their technology platforms and business plans.

While there are some just focused on the SME/SoHo marketplace and others on the consumer space, it is not clear from my meetings how any of these companies are different than any of the other companies also competing in the same crowded space for what appears to be the same customers.

Back in days of the Softswitch start-ups it became quite clear that not all of the 120+ companies playing in the softswitch space were going to make it. And this wasn't because of a pending dot-com crash or the after effects of living inside of bubble. It was the market reality of too much supply for the depend.

Under this new bubble, while the number of softswitch vendors today more or less represent the realities of the existing marketplace, the number of voice over broadband service providers that already exist, combined with those which have announced intentions of entering the marketplace coupled with those known to be operating in stealth mode will in effect flood the marketplace with their mostly undifferentiated service offerings.

For a short while the consumers will benefit since a price war is inevitable. But in the end, many of the investors will be the losers for being responsible for backing so many new service providers. Many without any real vision.

These days, a dollar and a dream can get you a lottery ticket in New York and with just a little more cash you can launch your own service provider.

Posted by jeff on June 29, 2004 08:17 AM | Permalink

Additional resources: #140conf events | Watch the Jeff Pulver Show | Jeff's Qik Videos

Comments

In 1994, my business partner and I would joke about how we thought that in the future, even our gardener would be providing internet connectivity! I think our prediction has materialized!

Posted by: Roula Eatrides at June 30, 2004 10:03 PM