Last week I was on a call with my internet provider, and surprisingly the agent started to offer me a revolutionary product, "health insurance", yes it was my telecom provider.
I understand why this happens; company boards want to diversify the cash flow of revenue, which is a way to increase revenue differently. Sadly, they are looking for new products instead of growing their customer fidelity with better solutions. In my opinion, this is a list of solutions where I think someone will pay more:
- IPV6: really, it's a reality nowadays. In Spain, only a low-cost provider is providing it. They invest heavily in mobile tech, as we can see with 3G, 4G and 5G. Sadly, nowadays, we're suffering a lot of CG-NAT, and it's almost impossible to pay for a static IP.
- SIM Attacks: This is still a typical attack, so things didn't improve; they should consider taking care of that, and it is simple.
- Parental control: It's something that they can offer without too much pain. They already have the infrastructure to manage millions of devices. I'll pay more if I have a web app to disable my kid's connection or services like NextDns or Pi-hole. Even disconnecting the 5G connection in his phone will be a great addition.
- Network mesh: I love Tailscale, they are doing fantastic work, but I miss a service where my internet provider can offer me a network mesh within my home and mobile, where I can see all the things together without too much pain.
- IoT Management: I am trying to understand why they do not productize home-assistant inside the router and be able to manage multiple applications from there, like my Roomba, lawnmower, blinds, etc. Standardizing all appliances will be challenging, but it's good vendor lock-in.
Such offerings like insurance or alarms are a faster way of revenue (In the end, it is just enabling your commercial power). Still, it's not a good strategic position. They are investing heavily in acquiring new customers to lower customer attrition. Telecoms are data pipelines where no value is added in their area of expertise, so end-users cannot benefit from it.
I wish that someone took a position that thinks that each house has a device powerful enough that it's able to do more things than routing packages. If that does not happen, telecoms will lose portions of their revenue, as it happens now with Cloud Hyperscalers, Netflix and some other friends.