It’s the Services, Stupid!

“Today, the telecommunications sector is beginning to reshape itself, from a vertically to a horizontally structured industry. … [I]t used to be that new capabilities were driven primarily by the carriers. Now, they are beginning to be driven by the users. … There’s a universe of people out there who have a much better idea than we do of what key applications are, so why not give those folks the opportunity to realize them. … The smarts have to be buried in the ‘middleware’ of the network, but that is going to change as more-capable user equipment is distributed throughout the network. When it does, the economics of this industry may also change.”