It’s kind of a crazy ongoing theme at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference, but the issue of whether voice service will soon be free (that is, available at no charge to consumers) keeps cropping up — Rupert Murdoch started this wave yesterday by predicting that voice would be free within three years.
Today, BellSouth’s CEO Duane Ackerman got hit with the question of whether he thinks voice service will soon cost nothing. Ackerman said he’s heard this all before; the dot-com boom gave rise to the notion that many services would be free.
But, the fundamentally reality is that it costs money to build networks that can deliver voice, and investors must make a return.
In reality whether you’re a wireless or wireline voice provider, this infrastructure is pretty capital intensive…it’s not obvious to me that this is a sustainable business model. History teaches us that in the end if there is going to be an investment, there has to be a return on those dollars.
Three other noteworthy disclosures by Ackerman. First, while BellSouth plans to repair existing plant where it can in Katrina-damaged areas, replacement facilities will be fiber-based.
Secondly, BellSouth is keeping its finger on the pulse of IPTV, but doesn’t think the time is right. “It’s not quite ready for us at this point in time for prime time.”
Finally, BellSouth will launch later this year a 6 Mbps high-speed product in certain areas. Ackerman said that BellSouth labs tests show that with “pair-bonding,” or combining two or more twisted copper pair lines, the company can achieve maximum download speeds of 24 Mbps.
Cynthia Brumfield at 10:29 AM|Comments(0)
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