10 Things You Need to Know About the Future of Broadband - GigaOM

This article was written by Martin Geddes, chief analyst at STL Partners, drawing on the views of over 800 ‘industry insiders”.  There are some very interesting observations. A big concern expressed by some about the future of the telecommunications networks is in becoming “dumb pipes”. There is a more positive view expressed here, but not the usual one (ie. that telco’s can transition to be fully integrated, convergent ICT and media service companies delivery applications and content as well as communications services).

According to Geddes, telecommunications providers future lies in being specialist logistics providers for valuable data - including network provisioning (including traffic shaping) and authentication utilising multiple delivery systems.  The providers of applications and content will be willing to pay the telcos to handle the network logistics problem for them.

Voice is described as the catalyst through the anticipated rapid deployment and use of embedded voice applications as part of the everyday online experience.

Seems worthy of deeper consideration to me. If the views expressed are right, the consequences may be resolution of network incentive problems to provide higher bandwidth, as well as easing some ICT sector concerns about network neutrality.