Second, new and innovative services in competitive markets are developed. Unfortunately, it is often very difficult to successfully compete and to avoid these conflicts at the same time. We wrote in Volume IV, Number 2 of the calm before the storm in the telecommunications industry. The storm that is now raging throughout the industry as a whole is raging in the enhanced services industry as well, where the regulatory environment has combined with technological advancements to produce a diverse set of new services. Other providers, such as Teltrust and Excell, are expanding their operator service offerings to include customer service and other more-generic call center activities.
Tremendous activity continues in the less traditional area of data services.
The wealth of information services available electronically continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. Service providers will continue to face the challenge of developing services with the right mix of content and delivery mechanism. The market will continue to change over the next few years as participants continue to explore different ways to compete and as the restrictions governing the ability of telephone companies to compete in the market loosen. Contact the publisher to subscribe to the full issue of the newsletter. Copyright 2000 Whitaker Associates.