Mobile operators can’t be more than a pipe
Continuing with yesterday’s post on 3G’s less-than-inspiring adoption rate, I found a report on the ‘Mobile Music’ seminar in October 2005, in which Kim Grams, formerly of US wireless carrier Cingular Wireless, discussed some of the obstacles facing 3G adoption in in the US and Europe:
From the post:
“He [Grams] said there is a desire among US operators to control the content that consumers consume through the use of carrier-specific wireless portals - a notion referred to in the industry as the “Walled Garden”. Third-parties selling services within the Walled Garden — be it music or other content — have the benefit of robust billing mechanisms and a semi-captive audience, while those outside the garden have more freedom to develop niche content, but lack the ability to effectively charge for their services.
“‘We don’t want to just be the pipe.’ that’s something we often hear from carriers,” Grams explained. Unfortunately, this position does not mesh with the wants of many third-party content providers, who want a direct relationship with the consumer and feel hindered by the efforts of carriers.”
But as I said yesterday, for mobile operators to improve 3G adoption rates, they must accept that they are just the pipe. Will they never learn?!
[Source: Electric News]
