Building Your OWN Networks: Nextel and Unified Messaging Technologies
The time has come in Nextel's growth to begin a discussion about ways we can work with Nextel to build our OWN networks that more clearly map what is happening on the Internet.
It's time for Nextel's guaranteeed all-digital wireless network to "open up" to the power of individuals by leveraging the power of ONE.
ONE voice, ONE person, ONE individual across many companies and many networks using Unified Messaging technologies - see below.
We all have networks of people we know and trust in our neighborhoods, local communities, regional areas and across the nation/world.
Nextel's technology is perfectly suited for cross-company, interpersonal networking: networking our networks at higher levels through the utilization of an empowered, targeted plan where individuals have incentives to connect more seamlessly with those they work with from day to day.
We are at the stage in technological evolution where one word encapsulates every major change out there: CONVERGENCE.
Devices, things, appliances, PC, hand-helds, phones, LANs, WANs, TVs, satellite, cable systems are ALL in the process of converging into ONE.
The race is on.
Craig McCaw sees this vision. Time and money will get us there. But Nextel needs to open up its business model of "market segmentation and product differentiation" to allow the entire world to embrace its platform BEFORE AT&T, Sprint and others try to do an end run using IP, the Internet and Unfied Messaging services.
Let's face it, Nextel's growth has been fueled more by viral word of mouth demand for they way its products differentiate themselves from the competition: They have ONE primary differentiator: group/private dispatch two-way radio....Direct Connect (DC).
The low-lying fruit in the business market has already been grabbed using basic DC. Then, segmented business networks were created. Inside these networks, various wireless vertical communication markets are incubating, emerging, evolving and growing within these networks - fueled by the efforts of individuals who need to connect and communicate with various other individuals on these same networks.
What we ALL need to realize is that ALL markets are essentially converstions between people. And Nextel has been a catalyst for a "new era of markets" where instant access to information is redefining the nature and scope of service, distribution, procedures and processes in business after business after business. If you are in business today and DO NOT know about Nextel I can guarantee your company is losing business to competitors who DO know about Nextel.
In the world of business today, having a Nextel phone is the equivalent of having a website, email and all the basic things we've come to understand about the Internet.
Because the Internet Business model is essentially very simple: open up, show your cards/information, share, extend, give, cooperate and grow. The entire world is being turned upside down as I type this. All companies, whether they like it or not, HAVE to have a website. All companies, whether they understand Nextel or not, HAVE to have a Nextel phone - or at least understand what their competition is doing with Nextel phones to run circles around their support, service, marketing and distibution programs.
Now there's a "next phase" that''s just in the beginning stages of kicking in: the convergence of telecom with the Internet with digital wireless technologies. Nextel HAS to have a business plan to attack this market. If they don't they will lose a tremendous potential for future growth.
In the wireless arena, we've seen how AT&T's Digital One Rate and Sprint's response coming on strong. But T and Sprint aren't stopping there. Sprint has a secret product with ties to the Internet soon to be announced, and AT&T's Personal network is circling wagons around existing local and LD business/personal users. The way I see it, we are basically in the early stages where the impact of Nextel's core differentiating technology (Direct Connect) will potentially be watered down by the expanded IP services that are about to flood the market in the days, months and years to come.
I know this is where Nextel Online, the i1000 Plus Phone, i2000 phone next year and all the rest of the goodies with Motorola, Netscape and the rest of their partners are supposed to kick in later this year and beyond.
But the REAL market is a mass market and the potential for ONE digital wireless network to emerge as a default platform - ie. the Windows model - for an ongoing and continuing range of expanded services that flow from IP data, apps and services. That's why AT&T gobbled up MediaOne. That's why BellSouth bought 10% of Qwest.
I'd like to think that Nextel, with it's links to Teledesic, and the potential for some core carrier deal to support them - Worldcom?? - is in a fantastic position to leverage it's existing networks of users into this new world of expanding IP-based services, etc.
Has anyone heard of Unified Messaging?
Unified Messaging (UM)is fast emerging as the next killer app in the world of telecommunications. Unified Messaging uses the IP protocol to combine voice/fax/paging/cellular/video and other data into ONE platform which all individuals can control from one entry device - whether that be a phone, PC, handheld, etc.
The market for Unified Messaging is less than 1 million accounts today, but is expected to grow to over 170 million accounts in just over 5+ years.
Nextel HAS to have a partner in this emerging explosive market. The UM market will be supported by all the various core telecom carriers. MCI, Sprint, AT&T, AOL and others will all be in this game. Every one of these companies NEEDS individuals to drive their UM platforms into a potential GET-BIG-FAST default platform.
There's one problem: NONE of these UM platforms will be able to talk seamlessly with one another.
But the world will DEMAND a platform which cross-networks between companies, people, etc. For that's the Internet Model. Non-proprietary solutions and networks will win out in this game.
I have chosen I-Link as MY UM platform of choice for they already have a mass-market product that's here NOW. And I-Link's core connectivity nationwide is supported by MCI-Worldcom. I-Link has some strategic IP patents that are valuable enough to warrent licensing deals with Lucent, Brooktrout and several other VOIP (Voice Over IP) box/product vendors
If Nextel and I-Link were to get together - either through a merger or strategic partnership - they could potentially own the bragging rights to the UM market very soon.
I don't think Nextel can go it alone with expanded IP services from their existing wireless network. Some may think they need a core telecom provider, but I happen to think they should first concentrate on approaching a UM app provider that can leverage the work they are doing with their wireless initiatives with Motorola, Netscape, etc.
A Nextel phone WITH expanded an IP-based Nextel-branded UM service solution is an EXTREMELY attractive proposition TODAY:
- instant voicemail messaging nationwide to hundreds/thousands of individuals with just one local call.
- ability to send/receive/manage faxes/voicemail - soon email - from any phone anywhere, anytime. If the people you work with are all on the same system, you never have to make a long distance call again to access and respond to voicemail messages.
- ability to screen, forward to voicemail, forward to any other number, default to an personal assistant/operator ALL of your incoming calls.
- ability to set up and control "on the fly" conference calls with 8 other individuals for a fraction of what it would typically cost the average user.
- ability to set up and control private subconference calls off the main conference call
- ability to set up and control 90 Fax-on-Demand (FOD) and 90 Voice-on-Demand (VOC) mailboxes for prepared voice and fax messages which can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, anytime - via a phone or the Internet - which can be reviewed, forwarded, or sent to any fax machine, email address or voicemail box worldwide.
- ability to be in touch ALL the time via 3-5 or more "follow-me" numbers which you can control to make sure you and the people your team can be ALWAYS in touch anytime your regular landline business phone rings.
- ability to set up virtual calling trees with dozens of people all across the country who are all working together to take calls to deliver answers regarding specific products, services, etc.
- ability to take advantage of ultracheap long distance rates as low as 4.9 cents/min.
Nextel won't be able to get their arms around this market for they don't have a UM application partner. Perhaps this is where Netscape and Motorola will come in soon. Even with that dynamic duo, they will still need a nationwide proprietary IP gateway network on which all this traffic must ride.
I think the future of Nextel rests in its ability to "see" and act decisively on this new game of convergence. Teledesic will be "out there", but the market for IP-apps in the telecommunications industry is just on the verge of heating up.
UM apps will make ALL cellphones much more powerful. This will take away some of the power behing Nextel's primary differentiator: DC.
Nextel needs a UM app which can integrate into their existing network.
Whether Nextel uses I-Link's technology is not the issue. I can easily integrate the two myself today. I-Link can be used with ANY existing cellular provider. I-Link and other UM options from other companies are going to be part of this next BIG wave that hits the telecom industry. ALL existing digital cellular providers should have a UM plan in place...NOW!
The end game in all this is to use these new technologies which individuals and businesses can use to create their OWN networks as they lock in new relationships between people and businesses.
Give an individual a Nextel phone and you've "locked in" the individual to a neat little feature which does have legs to others on the same network - but these business networks are not organized.
Expose an inidividual to a Nextel AND UM package and you've locked a longterm business relationship. With underlying telecom you have much more of a potential to reach a broader market while locking in preferred service solutions from these expanded services which will evolve.
Just my thoughts. |
