Comments on: A Bleak Future for Telecom

By: Like That Little Engine, Nokia Siemens Thinks It Can Make It

Like That Little Engine, Nokia Siemens Thinks It Can Make It — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:56:09 +0000

[...] the positive by all means, but the title amounts to wishful thinking, especially given the incredible difficulties the entire telecommunication equipment market faces. Remember Nortel? Like that “Little [...]

By: Nokia’s U.S. Disappearing Act Continues

Nokia’s U.S. Disappearing Act Continues — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:45:22 +0000

[...] write-down of Nokia Siemens Networks wasn’t entirely surprising — as Om noted nearly a year ago, the recession has hit the entire telecom industry hard by forcing network operators to pay off [...]

By: My TelecomHUB Presentation | Technology Frontiers

My TelecomHUB Presentation | Technology Frontiers — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:41:06 +0000

[...] This is true if you fail to recognize just how great it’s [...]

By: Nokia: Profits Down 90%, But At Least We’ve Hit Bottom

Nokia: Profits Down 90%, But At Least We’ve Hit Bottom — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:10:57 +0000

[...] in January. That’s bad news for the telecommunications equipment makers, who have so far been hard hit by the credit crunch. AT&T has said it would rein in capital spending in 2009 as have other operators. [...]

By: GigaOM Spring Cleaning: Motorola and Others Hit the Dustbin

GigaOM Spring Cleaning: Motorola and Others Hit the Dustbin — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:31:57 +0000

[...] We know it just won a big Chinese equipment contract, but the company is still finding its way in a difficult environment. It’s all pretty [...]

By: Nortel to Cut 3,200 More Workers

Nortel to Cut 3,200 More Workers — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:30:36 +0000

[...] costs. But while Nortel also went into bankruptcy with more cash on hand than is typical, amid such tough times for the telecommunications industry, the company may still end up as a subsidiary of a larger company or be sold off in bits. [...]

By: Slowdown Hits Telecom Gear Makers Hard | Telecom Update

Slowdown Hits Telecom Gear Makers Hard | Telecom Update — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:09:44 +0000

[...] On their call with analysts, AT&T executives indicated they were feeling the pressure in the small-to-medium enterprise segments of their high-margin legacy voice and data services business. Even retail business lines fell 4.3 percent for the full-year 2008 period. And as AT&T gets tight-fisted with its dollars, its suppliers, such as Adtran, are feeling the squeeze. (Related posts: Trouble Returns to the Land of Telecom and A Bleak Future for Telecom) [...]

By: A Nortel Bankruptcy Could Lead to a Deal

A Nortel Bankruptcy Could Lead to a Deal — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:58:22 +0000

[...] Higginbotham | Wednesday, January 14, 2009 | 5:58 AM PT | 0 comments In a sign of the troubled telecommunications industry, Toronto’s Globe and Mail is reporting that equipment maker Nortel ( s NT) plans to file for [...]

By: McGuire’s Law » Blog Archive » Business Observations: December 19, 2008 Edition

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:24:28 +0000

[...] A Bleak Future for Telecom [...]

By: A Bright Future for New Telecom | Voip Blog

A Bright Future for New Telecom | Voip Blog — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:21:06 +0000

[...] due to the Near Future of VoIP series, but this morning I caught Om Malik’s piece on the bleak future of telecom via Techmeme. The story reminded me that – contrary to Om’s statements – telecom does have a [...]

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:04:36 +0000

Also, I just want to add to the comments about ALU – they have the largest IMS deployments out there, and are thigh deep in the WiMax… They are in a very good position..for a crocodile type dinosaur.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:58:08 +0000

Om…I disagree with your assessment that telecom is BLEAK. Seriously, what does telecom even mean anymore? Therein lies the issue at hand, ATT is cutting legacy jobs and bloat, it probably needed to shed since the 80s. ALU is also cutting its legacy jobs, for products that dont make sense anymore. Nortel made the mistake of trying to leverage its legacy equipment for far too long, I could have called it 10 years ago when the first softswitches started being deployed. The CS2K is a joke! So where innovation has stifled, its bleak, but we are innovating in telecom. ATT and ALU are both adding jobs where they are innovating.

Telecom is not voice in a can anymore. Telecom the word might be headed for dead, maybe we should call it UltraCommunications – or UltraCom – many of us (big and small companies alike) are working to merge and seamlessly manage all the different ways people communicate through the various networks that are available to us. We also dont just communicate with other people anymore, we communicate with applications also!

By: mjgraves

mjgraves — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:57:55 +0000

Those who offer traditional services will surely suffer as the value of those services is in decline, and the subscriber numbers are dropping. Bye bye land lines, and the profits they provided.

What have these companies done to provide innovative new services? Most wouldn’t offer anything that undercut their traditional revenue streams. So they did effectively nothing. Catch 22.

The risk averse are ultimately rewarded appropriately.

By: A Bright Future for New Telecom | Smith On VoIP - VoIP Insights, Micro-Analysis and Speculation

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:05:09 +0000

By: Heartburn Chuckle: The telecom industry can blame itself | Signal to Noise

Heartburn Chuckle: The telecom industry can blame itself | Signal to Noise — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:31:57 +0000

[...] pal Om Malik writes this weekend about the layoff woes at Alcatel-Lucent and the delisting danger at Nortel, many of us [...]

By: Screen Sleuth

Screen Sleuth — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:13:01 +0000

David H.: Exactly. New ideas will actually be heard now, because large companies can’t drown them out by buying them over or saturating venues with advertising, like they’re used to doing. It could be one of most innovative times in history for tech and ideas, potentially.