If the Digital Locker is the Answer to Content Service Portability, Could the Communications Service Provider Community Monetize It?

The digital locker concept emerged recently as an Internet based storage method that allows consumers to move content services from one location or device to another.  Considering the number of times that I've either lost digital photos , electronic documents, or music due to a computer hard drive glitch, file corruption, or simply forgetting to transfer the information to a new computer or  device, use of a digital locker would make sense.

Like many new service offerings that become available to the consumer, these services only tend to be consumed if the new service provider is a trusted name with brand equity that is well recognized in the industry.  Pricing for such services must be competitive with other similar offerings, and the end consumer must perceive a level of value for the price point. Apple and online music  are without question the best example of product/service and brand pairing success.   In the digital locker space,  Microsoft was one of the first large brand names to embrace the idea, integrating it as part of its Windows Marketplace service.  This week however, Microsoft announced that it will be discontinuing the service in August of 2009. From my perspective, much of this is likely due to the product being  part of Windows Marketplace that it recently decided to close,  but also due to technology  issues such as  the service not working with 64 bit versions of Windows Vista.

With Microsoft out of the picture, it begs the question:  Who's next to try this?  Clearly, any player looking to launch a digital locker service will be aided by an existing customer base, a storage facility that offers terabytes of available storage space, and the ability to market, provision and bill for the service.  Would a Tier 1 communications service provider potentially fit the bill here?  Here are several reasons why they might.

1.     Any Tier 1 CSP has brand equity with millions of consumers and businesses.  Most also have built customer retention through innovative service bundles that combine a wide variety of products and services.

2.    Fixed line Tier 1 CSPs own the pipe into their customers' homes and businesses.
 
3.    Many Tier 1 CSPs have undergone a data warehouse transformation that has consolidated distributed data marts across the organization into a single unified enterprise data warehouse.  Many of the siloed data marts, now considered to be obsolete, now sit idle, and may currently be waiting for decommission or sale.  This data mart infrastructure could represent ideal storage capacity for digital locker services.

4.    OSS/BSS infrastructure already exists to support the sale and revenue management for newly launched services.  Digital locker services could either be positioned as a multi-tiered monthly subscription based on the size of the locker, or based on locker activity.  It could also be offered as an add-on to any broadband service being offered to new or existing customers and billed for accordingly.

5.    Many media organization are realizing that with the current state of the digital content distribution, it's better to join them, rather than fight them.  Many are even now willing to work to help support the distribution of content, regardless of where it originated.  Companies like CatchMedia have helped to spearhead this initiative, and could become valuable partners to the CSPs in any digital locker initiative.

I consider myself a technologically advanced consumer, but I am the first to admit that trialing new services, especially something as significant as digital asset storage, has me looking for a reliable, well known partner.  I'm willing to pay for guaranteed quality of service and security, and would love to see the service bundled on my bill as part of a larger communications multi-service offering.  I would even be willing to pay extra to allow multiple designated users to have either one way or two way access to my account.  Considering the number of times I've had files rejected by email servers because they are over a certain size threshold, being able to bypass the email channel would be an ideal way to share content with friends and family.   I think many heavy Internet users would probably agree with me.