Deregulation: one line, multiple services and technological diversity

The Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996 is currently reshaping our telecom world. In such a fast-paced deregulated environment, each type of business expresses a profound desire to move into another attractive one. For instance, local phone companies show a real interest in both long-distance markets and TV services. Conversely, long-distance companies become eager to provide local phone services while cable TV operators are seriously considering the opportunity to move into the telephone business. Nonetheless, bringing these ideas into fruition is a tricky challenge. Only a realistic picture of today's telecom landscape may allow the potential opportunist to succeed. This article attempts to analyze the various barriers that MSOs are currently encountering on their path towards new services delivery. Moreover, it gives a cogent scenario of what could happen in the future. To put it in another way, this paper tends to demonstrate that a successful MSO will be a company able to respectively understand customers' needs, and provide value added services over a single line. The approach used in this analysis is based on five important variables: needs, commercial challenges, marketing services, technology and network architecture.