It’s time we start thinking about Operator, 9-1-1 Emergency and Directory Assistance as a brand-new growth opportunity. What if you need help, called the Operator or 9-1-1 and the service was no longer there? Traditional services are quietly disappearing. While this is not being talked about much in the media, it is a byproduct of the move to new technology like wireless, smartphones, smart watches, tablets and VoIP Internet services. However, something new is taking its place.
These services have been rapidly growing for decades. They reached as close to 100% as they were going to in the early 2000’s. That’s when everything started to change. Today, the changes in the way we stay in touch continue their rapid transformation and expansion. We’re moving away from the old and going toward new technology.
This variety of technologies is becoming more expensive for service providers to provide these necessary services.
Remember, when you need help, quick, who are you going to call? The way we reach out for help is changing.
Change can be confusing. This story reminds me of the Yellow Pages and the phone books we all grew up with. We all depended on these for decades.
Today, where are they? They are gone. They are no longer delivered to our door every year. The Yellow Pages went the way of the gigantic Sears catalog so many Americans used decades ago.
So, just like the Yellow Pages and the Sears catalog disappeared, the same thing is happening to traditional telephone services we used called POTS or Plain old Telephone Service.
Since there are fewer traditional telephone landlines, and these services are used less, the high cost of maintaining them are causing phone companies to drop them like a hot potato to reduce their operating costs.
New growth opportunity for Operator, Directory Assistance, Emergency
The problem is, even though we use these traditional services less often, when we need them, we need them. So, where do users turn?
That’s the catch. This is a changing marketplace. It is a shrinking market on the main phone line, plus there are more service options, and users want them all to provide emergency, operator and information services.
This need has created a new growth opportunity for companies in this space to take on this load.
Going forward I see this new space as a growth opportunity. Increasingly, I believe we will see companies offering these services to phone companies, wireless companies, VoIP, smartphone and smart watch companies and much more.
In addition, these new services are much more advanced than ever before.
Verizon using Viiz monitoring services helping Apple Watch users
Here is an example. Verizon is now using Viiz Communications monitoring services on their Apple Watch. So, when a user needs help, the service can detect it and reach out to the user to see if they need assistance. If there is no answer, Viiz reaches out to a call list of family and friends. It can also send emergency services.
This kind of service goes far beyond traditional 9-1-1 emergency services. This uses the technology in the Apple Watch working with the Verizon network and the intelligent computers and sensors from Viiz to do more than ever before.
This combines three different sectors, the emergency service provider, the wireless provider and the equipment provider. Think about that from a growth angle.
New Emergency, Directory Assistance, Operator growth sector
In fact, there are a variety of new and different ways to reach out for help provided by makers of smartphones, tablet’s, smart watches and much more.
The problem is, it’s more confusing than just dialing “0”. This needs to be simplified.
However, this is what I believe the future of the world of communications will look like. Today, we are just in the very early stages of what could turn into a new and solid growth sector.
Yesterday, this was an industry with a simple service. Tomorrow, this industry expands into many, more technically advanced services from a wide variety of service providers and equipment makers.
In fact, with new technology like AI, IoT and the cloud, this could go even further moving forward.
New marketplace for Emergency services, Operator, Directory Assistance
I think this sector will evolve into a more competitive playing field than we see today. These services will be marketed to companies to provide them to their users.
Plus, I also believe this will evolve into the kind of service customers can purchase separately on their own, creating an even larger growth opportunity.
Part one is what providers will use as a competitive advantage, then as all competitors jump in it will simply become a cost of doing business.
Part two is when the hundreds of millions of users will be able to sign up for and subscribe to their own choice of services from other vendors on their own devices.
Yes, I see us moving to a time when users will be able to sign up with an Operator, Emergency Services and 9-1-1 Directory Assistance service company of their choice. They will by a bundle of services for all their devices and their entire family.
The choice will be up to the user. This is an exciting new growth opportunity for many companies.
Remember, the wireless and communications industry is going through an enormous change wave. It’s been doing so for decades already and today we are only in the middle.
This new sector is developing and is a great opportunity for investors. At the same time, this will continue to be a confusing time for users trying to understand what tomorrow looks like.
