ntop/current communications?
Will VoIP Be A Big Part of This?
JULY 13, 2005
andyabramson.blogs.com
A few days ago this story about Broadband over Powerlines came out.
The more I think about it, the more I think that VoIP is a big part of this, because it's not what and who you see, it's who and what you don't that matters.
What one has to do is look at the players. Forget Google, they are not the dealmakers. Look deeper, at who is the power behind the throne. The name is John Malone, one of the best dealmakers of the last century. Liberty Media, his company (regardless of how much percentage he holds) is very tight with IDT. While Malone has in the past been a director, he's one of the sharpest thinkers in the media world today. He understand the importance of access from his cable days, while at the same time understand that today you build the access, then you take a piece of the content that goes over that access.
Now look at NTOP. While Current and Net2Phone don't have a deal on paper, word is they have a kissy, kissy, huggy-huggy friendship in some key ways.By IDT reacquiring NTOP they get their technology. Take IDT, NTOP and Current and add all the pieces of the puzzle together and you have a phone company that once the other power companies join in, can replicate the Bells on the local level, once again serving as evidence that the access market is in decay and why an SBC buys AT&T (for their technology, network and business customers) while Verizon does a me too with MCI.
The next play for Malone is to be the content broker. Watch how he leverages his content relationships at the highest of levels (Time Warner--think Ted Turner, Viacom-Sumner Redstone). Who else is likely in the middle of all this. Think Allen and Company. Now do you see why Google was at the Allen and Company summit recently.
Oh how I love history..It always repeats and when John Malone is around and involved, it usually follows the same pathway to success. |
