The telcos, in other words, would much prefer that VOIP did not exist at all, because they like the traditional business model.
Culture, Mr Singer admits, is everything, and the telcos' culture has not nurtured creativity; but perhaps Telewest, with a content man in charge, can change that.The tougher challenge is that, to make his plan work, Mr Singer has to invent a new sort of content.
"All the old-model telcos are on their way out," says David Isenberg, a telecoms expert who accurately predicted the fall in value of AT&T's network in the 1990s when he worked for the company's famed Bell Labs (though his warnings went unheeded and he resigned).
This allows us more naive investors to continue to reap the four- to eight-fold rewards from investing in Chinese coal and power companies, Thai petrochemical and infrastructure stocks and telcos in the Philippines (just to name a few).Robert EberleySIR - There is some doubt in my mind about measuring corporations using dividends as a factor.
Increasingly, web-hosting firms such as Exodus and Loudcloud will be intermediaries between bandwidth providers, such as Level 3, and customers.If this vision is right, the big telcos that are splitting themselves up are doing the right thing, even if for the wrong reasons.
The telcos' troubles are bound to hit the equipment and systems suppliers' sales.
Over the past year, telcos have borrowed huge sums to buy operating licences for the coming 3G (third generation) mobile phones.
But the state monopoly is keeping its grip over access to ultra-high capacity submarine cables.Yet MSOs have one great advantage, which telcos cannot rival.
"Within telcos, you had different parts warring with each other over pricing, saying you're undercutting my product," says Sam Paltridge, a broadband guru at the OECD.
Instead, Telewest merged with Flextech, leaving Mr Singer with a company that today is worth £6.7 billion ($9.9 billion) and another idea in need of a bit of substance.The problem for telcos, says Mr Singer (he regards cable companies as telecoms firms, since that is their primary business in Britain) is competition.
Digital wallets and mobile banking are opening the door for telcos and software players, while trust is the entry point for retailers and crowdfunding communities.
