CHICAGO Job growth in some vertical industries over the past few months is good news for telecom carriers trying to determine whether increased demand for services will hold up through the second half of the year, SBC Communications Inc. CEO Edward Whitacre told Supercomm attendees.
Whitacre said Tuesday (June 22)that service providers still must segment to serving vertical niches in order to insure profitability as data transport becomes a commodity business.
SBC may appear to be an all-purpose octopus, Whitacre said, challenging cable TV with its satellite TV service and "creative consolidation of wireless assets with BellSouth to form Cingular, and now the further addition of AT&T Wireless assets." Eventually, however, SBC will look far different from an expanded incumbent local carrier, Whitacre said.
"We are not just trying to become a bigger version of our old self," he said. "There's a limit to being just a phone company."
Similarly, he said, a cable TV operator, a satellite TV company or a wireless carrier must look at converged communications that can redefine them.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
