Telcos that maintain a defensive, reactive posture are apt to lose market value. In both Europe and in the US, merging carriers are hoping that cost reductions can offset market share and margin losses from deregulation and that critical mass will help them do battle with the global titans and fend off unfriendly takeovers. However, the pressure to build a broadband access network will not go away. It will still be there when the fog of post-merger restructuring clears. The rush for access creates tremendous opportunities for telecom suppliers and customers.
Suppliers have the opportunity to become arms merchants for the bandwidth wars.
They need to develop new financing and deployment approaches, however, to help carriers invest aggressively and build out rapidly. For business and institutional customers, there is the opportunity to create the new business models that the broadband, always-on network will enable. It is increasingly possible to simultaneously achieve rich information flow, global reach, precise targeting of needs, and low cost like never before. This is the treasure that the access gold rush will unearth.