I spent nearly twenty years  working in the telcom industry as a player. I started my careed with Pacific Bell, then migrated to AT&T as part of divstiture in 1984. Several years later, when AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies, I went with Lucent in the equipment market. I left in 1996 before Lucent spun off Avaya.

The telecom industry is the center of the acronym universe, but there's one acronym that's more important that all others to the telcos - MOU. That's minutes of use. Billable time. It's as important to the mainstream telcos as billable hours are to a consultant. I've often used the phrase without billing, it's just a hobby to refer to some of my personal work and efforts. For the telcos, there are no hobbies. There's only billing.

Mobile and VoIP set to inherit the Earth
Friday, June 24 2005
by Charlie Taylor

A mass migration to alternative telephony is forecast over the next five years, with a quarter of Western European households expected to ditch their landlines.

By 2010, mobile and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services will account for more than 60 percent of residential voice spend in Western Europe, according to a new report from the research firm Analysys.

The company predicts that around 25 percent of households will have abandoned traditional telephony services offered via the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by 2010 in favour of cheaper options.

"The mass market for voice services in Western Europe is being transformed by the substitution of mobile and new VoIP services for traditional fixed voice services," said Katrina Bond, lead author of the report. "We expect that in five years 45 percent of voice minutes will be made from a mobile or VoIP connection, compared to 28 percent in 2004."

I'm not entirely convinced that the numbers for today, or the projections are accurate. But it's clear that VoIP, expecially coupled with mobile telephony, has begun serious erosion of the old mainstream telco's MOU. And you better believe it's something they're concerned about. If you watch the FCC and the pitches being made to protect the old incumbent telco environment every week, it's clear that the traditional telecom players are rallying the forces in an effort to maintain control.