Martin's First Blog

Welcome to my blog, which shares some of my thoughts and impressions on how the telecom world that we know and love is changing faster than almost anyone can keep up with. I don’t seem to be able to find the time to chat with all the people who might help me understand this, so I’m blogging my thoughts and hoping that some people out there will chat back. No one person can ever hope to understand the depth and breadth of this industry in its entirety, so we all need to learn from each other.

So what is this new industry? It certainly can’t be called Telecom anymore. In fact I don’t think this new industry has a name yet – perhaps we can create one that sticks. It involves the companies that are presently called telecom companies and cable companies – and all their usual suppliers. That much is easy to grasp. But it also involves the companies that are providing content to fuel the new services that the telecom and cable companies want to offer. And the Internet-based companies such as Google, Skype and Yahoo are definitely in the mix somewhere, as are the hundreds of device players. So we are probably talking about some industry that delivers New Information, Communication and Entertainment services. The NICE industry.

The TM Forum is trying hard to stay one step ahead of the NICE industry by defining standards and guidebooks on how to manage the myriad new aspects that need to be managed. These range from end-to-end quality, to apportioning revenue across all the players in the value chain, to ensuring that security is at the heart of all transactions.  Over the coming weeks, I’ll share the latest advances that are being made and let you know my thoughts on what’s hot and what’s simply ‘hot-air’ in this rapidly changing landscape. I hope that you will also keep me up-to-date on the industry dynamics that catch your eye. Fundamentally this industry is at its most exciting phase in decades – perhaps ever – and I count us fortunate to be right in the middle of this excitement.