Howe: A Telco 2.0 Technology Primer

by Thomas Howe

In my previous article, "Introducing Telco 2.0 - A Business Primer", I explored the fundamentals of Telco 2.0 business models and cases. In this article, I'd like to touch on the technology side of the equation, and try to define the technologies and architecture that distinguish Telco 2.0 applications from those built on more traditional technologies and approaches. The real excitement that surrounds Telco 2.0 comes from compelling business models and the promise of a final escape from per-minute charging models, but the application of web technology to voice services is the clear enabler.

A Telco 2.0 application is an application that uses other networks to carry voice, uses web services to integrate (or to be integrated) into other software services and typically has voice in a supporting role to a larger application. Let's look at these points in detail:

Over the Top: Telco 2.0 applications are almost always deployed as "over the top" solutions. A terrific example is Grand Central from Google. Grand Central is an application that accepts an inbound phone call, then rings all of the other phones in your life. Once you answer the phone, it allows you to record the call, and if you don't answer, it saves it in a visual voice mail box and emails you a link. Other than accepting the incoming phone call, Grand Central works with all of your other phones from any carrier, and here's the important part, without the carrier's permission or consent. As far as Verizon is concerned, calls from Grand Central are indistinguishable from any other phone call in the network. From a carrier perspective, this is truly scary, as the Grand Central delivers the value and Verizon becomes what they most fear: a dumb pipe. This is the first element that allows Telco 2.0 applications to scale: they ride on the backs of elephants.

Light Weight: Telco 2.0 applications are typically written with a light-weight approach, and rarely try to be all things to all people. Jott comes to mind here. Jott subscribers load their contacts into the service, then use any phone to leave messages for the people on their list. Jott takes the voice mail message, transcribes it and sends it off as an email. For the mobile in life, it provides the fastest way to send status, assign tasks and keep in touch. What else does Jott do? Not much. Like a screwdriver, all it does is its job, and it does its job very well. This is the second element that allows Telco 2.0 applications to scale: the feature sets are manageable and can be well tested.

Web Technologies: Telco 2.0 applications are based on web technologies, and nearly always integrate well with other web applications using web services. Lypp is Erik Lagerway's new startup, providing web based conferencing services. The differentiator is the API: it is drop dead simple for any web programmer to put conferencing on demand into his application. Consider how an engineer only a few years ago could enable this functionality, which now only requires a credit card and a an afternoon with a text editor. This is the third element that allows Telco 2.0 applications to scale: the Internet was built to scale.

Voice is a Spice: Telco 2.0 applications aren't about Telco--they're about anything else. Instead of the phone being the star of the show, it plays a bit part. Twitter is a shining example, as Twitter is about micro blogging and keeping in touch with those you care about. The phone is an interesting way of getting that job done. This is really apparent in communications business model applications, such as using voice messages to alert a population during a natural disaster, text messaging to vote for a game show or the thousands of pay-by-phone applications. Voice is the pawn, not the King. Voice isn't the meat, it's the spice. This is the last element that allows Telco 2.0 applications to scale: by forcing voice and messaging to be a commodity, it can permeate any other application, radically increasing the places where we can use it.

Some say there are 1,000 Telco 2.0 applications, but I would say they underestimate that number, as voice and messaging will show up in a hundred applications in a thousand niches. The technical underpinnings of Telco 2.0 make those applications inexpensive to build and deploy, and will scale to impressive heights.

Thomas Howe is a long-time telecom consultant, writer, and speaker who is the CEO of the Thomas Howe Company, providing expertise in improving the business process with real-time communications. His website is at http://www.thomashowe.com