Carriers need to surf the Web 2.0 wave

[Interesting article on how carriers need to embrace Web 2.0 technologies. But Web 2.0 is so antithetical to the carrier business model, it would be like asking the Pope to convert to Islam. Thanks to Frank Coluccio for this pointer. Some excerpts from original Lightreading article- BSA]


http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=127053

Carriers' next generation service platforms need to go beyond the closed IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and extend into the open Web 2.0 world if they're to develop the applications their customers will demand, according to a group of senior operator CTOs talking here in Chicago.

BT Group plc (NYSE: BT - message board; London: BTA) CTO Matt Bross agrees that incorporating the potential of Web 2.0 mashups -- the creation of a new service by combining two existing applications -- and allowing third-party developers to create applications to run on carrier networks is the only way forward.

"... the innovation genie is out of the bottle. We need to do more mashups, and we need to connect together for innovation," stated Bross, ...We're moving towards a real-time global innovation model... [and] moving from a closed to an open model. It's a big challenge," for carriers.

"The emergence of Web 2.0 mashups from the IT world may put a new spin on telco service creation that could ultimately render an emerging generation of IMS-based applications obsolete,"