Blog: John Myers

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Lowest Common Denominator

"It's the economy, stupid"

That was the war cry / lowest common denominator of the 1992 presidential election. Now Stephanie Mehta is trying to make:

"It's the network, stupid"

the lowest common denominator of the recent troubles of MVNOs and VoIP providers. While having network ownership may have its advantages, Mehta underplays the role of quality business plans and competitive advantage in the failures of MVNOs and VoIP providers.

In my opinion, if you provide a quality service at a quality price; consumers will beat a path to your door. Consumers will even pay more for a product/service that meets not only their "needs", but their "wants". All you have to do is look at the consumer success of .... ( warning... warning... Apple reference coming.... ) iPod and the iPhone. There are cheaper services than iTunes. There are cheaper devices than iPod. And there are certainly cheaper phones than the iPhone. But Apple has made a concerted and successful effort to build a "better mouse trap". And it wasn't always that way ( read newton and lisa ).... Apple has had to build strong business cases and competitive advantage for all of their successes.

Again, I am sure that owning the network has its advantages. However, you might ask Verizon if the FTTH that FiOS is based on is paying dividends yet. I also believe that companies and telecoms in particular, need to build strong business cases and carve out unique competitive advantages to be successful. A lowest common denominator for failure like "it's the network" is just too simplistic to be THE answer.

NOTE - Tara Seals appears to agree more with Mehta than with me.... :)

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Telecom, MVNO, VoIP, Competitive Advantage, Stephanie Mehta, Tara Seals

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