Triple Play Blog TMC

The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play

September 26, 2006

This week I attended IDC’s European IT Forum and listened to Chris Anderson speak about his Long Tail concept. He used examples such as Amazon and Rhapsody to explain how online retailers can profitably sell niche products to a “long tail” of previously underserved, micro-segmented markets. I have wondered how the same concept could be applied to triple play and quad play: after all, recently launched MVNOs focus on specific consumer markets such as families with young kids (Disney mobile) or young American males (Amp’d mobile). Disney has a multi-play approach by leveraging their brand across content, TV, radio, them parks, etc.

I had a chat about this with Chris, and he confirmed that MVNOs are the “beginning of a Long Tail” in telecoms, but they are not as micro-segmented as online businesses. According to him, a couple of catalysts are still missing to enable the real Long Tail on mobile phones: 1) cheap broadband and 2) better GUIs. In other words, the mobile phone experience has to get closer to Web surfing. When that happens, quad play services are sure to get a boost!

-Erik




Related Tags:

Email Author Feedback

See this page in TechnoratiTechnoratibook mark The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play in del.icio.usDel.icio.usThe Long Tail of telecom services and quad play to Slashdot.comSlashdotSubmit The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play to Digg.comDiggSubmit The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play to BoingBoing.netBookmark The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play in FurlFurlBookmark The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play in SpurlSpurl

Listed below are links to sites that reference The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play:

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt3/t.fcgi/28014

Comments to The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play

  1. RE: The Long Tail of telecom services and quad play
    Martijn Brouns :
    September 6, 2007 7:50 AM

    Comparing Amazon's long-tail range of books with the positioning of MVNO's is like comparing apples with pears.

    Amazon is still a one-stop shop for goods (predominantly books). If we do like to make a comparison, we might have to make the split in the following services:
    - access network (ISP xyz, operator xyz)
    - service brand (Amp'd mobile, Disney, Amazon)
    - differentiated goods

    With this in mind, it is logical that MVNO brands like Disney and Amp'd arent' as microsegmented. In the end, an MVNO brand built with expensive above-the-line communications requires substantial economies-of-scale (minimum .5 Million subscribers).