Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Mysteries of "convergence"

I am very happy with Speakeasy, my DSL ISP, especially for their outstanding service with very knowledgeable support staff. They just announced that they are being acquired by Best Buy. Here's (part of) the justification:

One of Speakeasy's core product offerings is Voice over IP (VoIP), which is becoming a popular choice for small businesses who seek efficient and cost-effective telecommunications services. Best Buy For Business' mission is to deliver simple, reliable, and affordable technology solutions to small businesses. A product offering such as VoIP, which has immediate compelling appeal to most SBs based on cost savings and simplicity, is an attractive value proposition that allows Best Buy to round out its solutions menu for small businesses.

I wish them the best, but as a residential Speakeasy customer, I wonder. After all, it wasn't so long ago that telecom companies were talking about "convergence" and the benefits of vertical integration. We saw where that ended up, with the evaporation of billions and billions in customer and shareholder value, and huge payoffs for officers and investment bankers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree Fernando, the convergence of telecommunication services just seem to benefit their investors and not their customers. Competition is vital for affordable prices to exist and with companies converging, such as Speakeasy and Best Buy, the customers will eventually lose.

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