The Telecommunications Industry is Changing and it is Time to Adapt.

Have you been getting tired of your current cell phone plan? Have you ever been charged for exceeding your monthly data plan? These are things that have changed several times over the past 15 years and will continue to change for some time.

The telecommunications Industry continues to change at a rapid pace and it is time that companies adapt. The article "Aspiring to digital simplicity and clarity in strategic identity", written by Christine Rupp, Florian Groene, Pierre Peladeau, and Bahjat el-Darwiche, discusses several hot topics in the Telecomm realm that are causing revenues to drop. New competition has arrived and it is not coming from the major players in the industry.

Over-the-top (OTT) players offer apps and streaming services and their dominance is growing everyday. This article points out how OTT players offer apps such as "WhatsApp" and "Skype" which take up a huge amount of messaging traffic and international voice calling. The best part about these apps is that they are free. One could simply purchase an iPad or an iPod Touch, download "WhatsApp", and not have to worry about paying a phone bill to talk to a friend.

The article moves into discussing a solution to this problem. A simple, yet complex solution is simplification. I could not agree any more with the authors on their opinion of simplifying Telecomm companies. There needs to be a more centralized focus on one aspect instead of trying to control the entire industry. For instance, introducing 5G internet speeds could allow a carrier to declare themselves the "fastest data roaming carrier in the country". This is the type of thing that can separate a carrier from the rest, without having to go above and beyond. Mobile carriers have been overthinking their business models for far too long and it is certainly time to simplify things.

The final aspect of this article discusses Mergers and acquisitions. Now, I do not necessarily agree with this notion for one particular reason. Although growing and obtaining larger portions of the market can simplify things, it will be incredibly expensive. Last year, Telecommunications companies in the U.S. spent $224 billion on mergers and that number is nothing less than astonishing. Overall, the Telecommunications world is changing rapidly and it is time to take a step back and simplify things.