Analysts chastise carriers’ cautious approach to Internet services

The future of the “anywhere Internet” will likely involve a variety of networks and devices, analysts said during a teleconference this week-and if wireless operators want to get in on the innovation, they’re going to have to open up the full Internet to customers and develop partnerships with the companies that are innovating in the Internet space.
Carriers’ tight control of the wireless Internet, where customers are offered specific applications and there is a limited ecosystem of devices, is reflective of legacy telecom business models and not of the newer, Internet-focused models, according to Yankee Group Senior Vice President Phillip Marshall. Carriers’ control over mobile Internet access “has resulted in the market not being a particular success,” Marshall said.
Traditional telecom companies’ success in the anywhere-Internet world will depend on several factors, Marshall said, including their quickness and willingness to offer new services (and to tear unsuccessful ones down). Carriers must also take advantage of a wide range of third-party applications and build upon them.
Although the panelists concluded that the true mobilization of the Internet is still a ways off, some carriers are moving in the right direction.
Caroline Gabriel, research director for Rethink Research, cited the success of Hutchison Whampoa’s 3 in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom. The carrier operates a 3G network and plans to introduce flat-rate data prices. The carrier is also preloading services from companies such as Google Inc., Skype and eBay Inc. onto its handsets to “make the user experience as transparent and automatic as the one we see on the PC,” Gabriel said.