Hi. While this blog is a part of Seed Catalyst’s website, I realised over the initial few weeks that a lot of you are first introduced to the firm via the blog rather than our home page.
So to introduce myself - I’m a business consultant working with early stage technology firms to help streamline their strategy and go-to-market approach and support them for fund raising.
With this blog, I aim to capture key market trends that I see in the industry, the ecosystem and cross-plays in some of the more interesting and upcoming sectors, as well as cover interesting companies that I meet.
I will also be addressing vexing and interesting valuation and deal/term-sheet structures that would be of interest to technology start-ups at various stages of their growth.
Operators have been struggling to play in the quad-play market of phone, broadband, cable and mobile but one of laggards all along was BT. Sometime in 2008 there was a rumour that the operator would be bidding for the WiMAX 2.6GHz spectrum auction. The rumour came back earlier this year. Interestingly enough, riding the smartphone pick-up, the firm has made a very innovative entry into the mobile market.
They have recently launched a mobile app (iPhone and Android platforms) which enables their broadband users to search for BT WiFi hotspots – which are free. Free. The hotspots are of two varieties – those which are installed in public places such as airports etc and the other is BT users who allow sharing of their network.
I thought it was a brilliant strategy on multiple fronts.
Voice: All platform providers now host multiple VoIP applications – Fring, Skype, iCall. It can only be expected that over time voice traffic will increasingly move away from traditional networks, more so perhaps for international calls and thereafter domestic. In summary, the data package will become way more important than the free voice minutes included in operator packages. Before the critics jump, I know it can’t be VoIP across the board thanks to poor WiFi coverage – the emphasis is on the word increasingly. Operators are struggling with this fait accompli – lost voice traffic and revenues to higher data traffic.
And this where the BT strategy works wonders – they win the lost voice traffic without the headache of the voice network. Lack of mobile voice is no longer the clink in their armour.
Media: The first step was the IPTV offering of BT Vision with limited content. Step two was a major achievement earlier this year when the firm won the right to broadcast Sky content and sports channels. Step 3 will be the internet connected media delivery platform Canvas which will be one app with integrated content from multiple sources. There is the potential for competition from other operators like Talk Talk on the open Canvas platform. However BT will now have the advantage of control over the third screen as well with their ubiquitous WiFi connectivity bundled with the home broadband. Very soon the firm will be able to advertise the possibility to watch movies, videos, content over multiple screens uninterruptedly – a vision all telecom operators are aiming for.
There are naysayers for every element of BT’s offerings but this once you have to agree – the firm’s got it right.
