AT&T and Verizon have led the wireless space for the last decade. That’s been the main area of growth for both of these industry leaders. So, as the rate of traditional wireless growth slows, these two companies are moving into new areas of growth using their wireless business as a springboard. This next decade will be very exciting to follow.
These two companies are rapidly expanding into several other areas. AT&T acquired DirecTV and, with their U-verse IPTV service, is now the largest pay TV provider in the United States. As they add wireless TV to this service, this is a new growth opportunity.
AT&T also acquired a Mexican wireless carrier and is growing that market as well. This should be another growth area for the company going forward. There are also several other areas of growth as well.
Verizon is moving into the advertising and wireless video space with their Go90 service and AOL. They are also working with Comcast on their wireless offering.
In the last few years, Verizon has been quite secretive about their future plans, but they have the same kind of opportunities as AT&T if they choose to move in that direction.
IoT, machine-to-machine and cloud growth
There are many areas both AT&T and Verizon are expanding into. IoT, or the Internet of Things, will play a larger and more important role going forward, both on the wireless and the wire line side for both companies.
IoT, or machine-to-machine, is a new, huge and growing opportunity. We are still so early in this new space that it is currently unclear which companies and technologies will lead going forward. In fact, the leaders may change on a regular basis for the next decade. With that said, both AT&T and Verizon see this is a big opportunity and are pursuing it.
Kagan sees Internet of Things growth opportunity
IoT is an enormous opportunity for growth and that is why I believe AT&T and Verizon are targeting it. They are leaders in the wireless space, smartphone space and wire line space; and, I believe their IoT plans will weave everything together and open new growth opportunities.
Machine-to-machine is not something the average consumer will understand, but they use it. Companies will be the real drivers of IoT growth–companies who want to monitor usage of their products and services and send updates and fixes to automatically keep things working well.
The IoT is that huge network that no one sees or is even aware of, but which connects companies to their products and customers to conduct business, communications, repairs and so on, and all behind the scenes.
In fact, machine-to-machine technology and IoT is already alive and well in our lives today. We just don’t think of it. Every time you get an update to an operating system on your smartphone automatically, that’s IoT at work. And this will only increase as time passes.
Machine to machine, IoT and the cloud will be a huge growth driver going forward for the companies that lead that new space.
To date AT&T has the lead on this new area of growth, but I don’t think Verizon will be far behind. The opportunity is too great. These industry leaders will obviously continue to sell wireless and wire line services, but IoT, machine-to-machine and the cloud are all new opportunities and they will all work together.
The benefit for AT&T and Verizon is they already have a nationwide wireless network, a regional phone network, television and many other services, which will all work together in unison for business customers as well as consumers.
The marketplace will continue to evolve, grow and to change. It has always been this way and it will continue in this same direction. AT&T and Verizon have been leaders in this combined space and I see that continuing. AT&T typically gets the head start then Verizon follows in the same space. And I see the same thing happening with IoT. So buckle up because expansion in the wireless industry will be exciting.
