UC Powers Change

Regarding UC Obstacles: It’s Not the
Technology… or Is It?, a reader questioned
whether or not that I had any hope for change.

Not only am I hopeful, but I remain mindful of
the past history lessons of market forces and
the nature of supply and demand.

Let’s set the stage with what we know. Energy
runs what we all have and want. Our dependence
upon foreign oil sources must change and due to
the very nature of change – we know it takes time to invoke changes on
large national or global scales. Then, if Americans don’t have money in
the bank, nobody wins. Long ago, JP Morgan and Company manipulated
markets, diplomats and politicians but they too found that when Americans
didn’t have money in the bank, nobody won. Unwelcome as the Great
Depression was, it was in fact a worldwide breakdown not just in financial
backing and resolve, but it carried the deep and lasting erosion of
confidence and hope that took hold and wore a lasting and devastating toll
on people. In short, it was a humbling lesson for humanity. I believe we
stand to face another humbling lesson.

That bonding glue that traditional telephony lacked or failed to deliver can no
longer be tolerated, and the promise of UC is, well very promising. Did
anyone learn a lesson from the failures of TDM over IP? Or maybe I should
ask, who didn’t learn a lesson? Other scrapes with the old ways of doing
things or old systems resulted in some public hatred of their cable TV
providers that stirred those in Washington to action. During the same early
era of cable TV, Sprint had huge billing issues and firing the CEO didn’t
exactly correct the problem of the industry, but it did reckon the need to get
the bills out on time to customers. Still, other issues have plagued the
carrier business (wireline and wireless) and until we see some standards
to ensure the quality we need to go about doing what we normally do; then
okay, I’ll admit: don’t expect things to change from the carriers.

While the FCC has a vested interest in telecommunications and it isn’t
just for the sake of regulation (I’ll admit, I complain too about using telecom
as a way to raise tax revenues) it is a thankless job (of the FCC) charged with
some sense of order to hear vendors and their lobbyists campaigning for what
they want and understanding consumers’ and businesses’ “hopes” of
getting what they want. Then, in all the fury of politicians promising to make
things right again, we don’t want to forget the carriers’ past practices of
slamming, making rules as they go and then charging how they please. Still
in our memories are all the little guys on the street trying to move in on the
telcos’ territory and crying foul because the telcos wouldn’t play fair or
couldn’t because of the system in place. There’s no lack of finger pointing
and there remains plenty of room for improvement.

If my premise is correct that telecommunications (and this includes cellular) is
, in fact a part of the national infrastructure (roads, highways, bridges, water
, energy, sewage, etc), then my argument remains that these are inclusive to
serving the public’s best interest and this means rising over and above the
sole interest of capitalism. The national highway system by design was for
national interests (good of the public defense and use) by President
Eisenhower. Of course I understand the funding for the national highway
system and other public interests originated from funds and bonds.

Still, I remain hopeful that cellular will improve; the carriers will lose their
current exemption of providing shoddy services, and I do expect one day too
that they must be held to the same or even higher degree of accountability
as the wired world. Capitalism is fueling this change, to the tune of
significant investment dollars in startups along with those fortunes enjoyed
by Cisco and Microsoft in the strengthening of their rightful positions to
make sure that the UC "standard" belongs to them. Once it is under mass
deployment and ingrained in our ways of life (work or pleasure), UC can
positively impact our effectiveness and efficiency in work and pleasure. I do
think it will also contribute to improving our standard of living; and pointing
back to market pressures; shoddy cellular service cannot continue or survive
on past performance. The supply and demand of UC isn’t just a commodity
to Heckle and Jeckle with, instead; UC demand will outpace cellular voice just
as web access or “data” has outpaced traditional voice. Quality won’t
remain as an optional idea.

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