The Letter - What's Next?

Posted: 09/2001

The Letter

What’s Next?

As I sit down to write my “comeback” editor’s letter (for those of you that didn’t notice, I was gone from this post for the past year), I am not nearly as anxious about its contents as I was the first time I came back from “entrepreneurhood” in 1998, but I am equally bereft of words. Well not words, really, but words with wisdom.

In 1998, the world, and especially the telecom world, was on an upswing that had us so high I think we forgot we would have to come down. In 2001, the world, and especially the telecom world, has come down.

I’m not going to try to spin this as a good thing. It pretty much sucks for all of us (even reporters are not immune to what’s going on in the industries we cover). But I guess the best thing to do is get over it and start dealing with the tough question: Where will we find value next?

This is a question that everyone in the tech sector is asking–from entrepreneurs to large banking institutions. The answer? No one really knows. But it’s a safe bet that value is going to come from somewhere within the networked environment.

Think about it. We are not going to go back to old economy ways (maybe we’ll go back to old economy metrics, but not its business processes). The advantages of the net economy are too compelling.

Trade relationships are going to be streamlined through point-to-point or hub-and-spoke connections. Application software for communications and computing is going to be accessed remotely. Certainly, there are a hundred examples of B2B, B2C and C2C activities that will rely on the network.

That’s good news for the telecom space. As these services saturate the market, bandwidth will be eaten, and telecoms will get a respite from the

customer drought brought on by the current glut.

The prudent and, let’s face it, the lucky will be the ones that can hang on until that day. Fortunately, my sources tell me that the worst will pass with 2001.

Khali Henderson
Editor in Chief

Corrections:

The RFC Capital Corp. URL at the end of Soap Box, PHONE+ July 2001, should read
www.rfccapital.com.

To the July 15 PHONE+ International Global Carriers,
Resellers & Agents Source Book:

The contact information for FLAG Telecom Ltd. Is:
FLAG Telecom Ltd.
9 South St.
Mayfair
London W1K 2XA
UK
+44 20 7317 0897
Fax: +44 20 7317 0859
Contact: Karen H. Lopez, Sales/Marketing
E-mail: [email protected]
Web. www.flagtelecom.com