Carriers: Be Brave, or DieCarriers: Be Brave, or Die

8:15 AM -- LONDON-- OSS 2.0: Driving the Services Revolution -- This one-day conference has kicked off in style, with an opening address from Heavy Reading analyst at large Caroline Chappell, challenging operators to back up their Telco 2.0 talk with some commitment and action, and a strong intervention from TM Forum president Martin Creaner. (See OSS 2.0: Carriers Need to Walk the Walk.)

Pitching in to the panel session, "Telco 2.0 - OSS, BSS & the Next-Gen Service Package," Creaner, commenting on the time it takes for carriers to get new services to market, said operators need "imagination and courage, and sometimes you need to hit and hope. There's a lack of courage in the telco industry, and that lack of courage could kill us eventually."

Strong words, but just the latest in a series of messages urging operators to Get On With It!

But will they? Not while they continue to be organized like traditional carriers and behave like traditional carriers. It's easy to say that telcos need to become more like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), and very hard to achieve, but that's basically what's needed. As Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) Internet services guru Michel Burger stated here this morning as he contributed to the debate, "telcos are encumbered with structure."

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading