Why Does It Have To Be So Complicated?
This interconnect voice business can be incredibly frustrating! It seems as though, no matter what, there is a new challenge, new dynamic in the marketplace, a new network technology or a new regulatory item that needs to be addressed. See, the interconnect voice marketplace is constantly changing and constantly evolving. That, coupled with the normal competitive forces (low barriers to entry, low differentiation, declining per call revenues, commoditization of services, etc.), means that it is all just seemingly too complicated for the benefit. If “lay” people had any idea how the interconnect voice marketplace worked, they would either throw their hands up in disbelief or pass-out from pure boredom at having to listen to all the intricacies and complexities that make up this industry.
It’s enough to make you **** or go blind!
Interconnect voice is crazy complicated. All these great technological revolutions and evolutions have resulted in, what is in many ways, a “spot-market” for voice telecommunications. Capacity, Quality & Cost are variable, and demand fluctuates. Carriers need to be able to respond to the dynamic needs of this reality. But, it requires serious commitment and constant vigilance. It is not for the faint of heart nor the easily distracted. It requires discipline, commitment and effort to sustainably succeed in the interconnect voice marketplace. We should know. Most of us have been involved in the industry since just after the 1996 U.S. Telecommunications Act and functional VoIP gateways were released into the market. We’ve seen it grow, change and go through countless revisions of “Creative Destruction”. At each milestone in its evolution, things have, somehow, seemingly gotten more complicated, not less. There is more information that needs to be exchanged, there is more data created and there are more companies participating.
Why does an industry that is becoming more complicated, declining in overall revenue generation, and offering less margin opportunities impose more complexity? How does that happen? Oh, it’s because voice calling is, and will continue to be, one of the most important technologies that man has ever created or deployed in modern civilization! Voice communication is right up there with fire and the wheel for inventions that have changed human history. So, everyone is constantly tinkering with it. Trying to figure out how to deliver it better to more people, with higher quality and lower costs.
But, despite all the technological advances, it actually is more complex today. Before carriers would have one, two, or maybe three interconnects. Okay, maybe the big guys would have 10 interconnects. That was the 20th century. In 2016, carriers want as many interconnects as possible to exploit all of the marketplace advantages that they can while lowering their “total cost of ownership”. That is not an easy or trivial task. But companies like GCS are trying to make it a little better, a little easier. With Next Gen interconnect voice management platforms, carriers can meet the demands of the marketplace. So, even though it’s so friggin hard some times, it is getting better and much less complicated.