Intelligent Transport Systems - Telenor

and application levels (like bandwidth, omnipresence
and context dependent interpretation).
It also reinforces the perception of the
networks as a kind of utility, free for all to use
as an input factor in own value creation, i.e. a
kind of commons, from which you can expect
a lot without bothering about it. 4)
• In this process, terminals, networks, applications
and content foreign to the telco business
model, e.g. incompatible to the traditional
pricing principles, gradually invade the telco
business realm, and provoke changes. It is a
multidirectional process at many different
speeds.
• The consumption of telecommunication as an
end product is losing its share of the communication
volume. What is consumed will
increasingly be a product or service with telecom/datacom
embedded and invisible to the
user. This implies that e.g. the end product
decreasingly is voice telephony and increasingly
a dish washer, a logistics system, a ball
pen, a surgical tool, or a virtual eye for the
blind – improved through network connectivity.
(Even the traditional network embedded
application “voice telephony” is these days
transformed to a terminal application, using
any network present as a shere accidental utility.)
Many of the statements above were highly controversial,
considered irrelevant, or “mind blowing”
within telco fora 10 years ago. Now they
seem commonly accepted. They are of course
still highly debatable as to the tactical questions
of growth rate, timing, technical implementations,
business models, smart tactical moves,
what should be considered reasonable regulation,
as well as the societal impact of such a
development.
The statements clearly point out that tele- and
datacom networks are bound to lose what we
might call their “organisational overhead carrying
capacity” as price models change, margins
fall, other players take their shares of the traffic
growth over to other networks, and services get
network transparent and independent.
To maintain income levels under such circumstances,
the network operators as well as the service
providers have a fairly limited set of
options: significant increases of volume, main-
Telektronikk 1.2003
tain or get some degree of monopoly, substantial
reduction of costs, and move into new markets.
As to the traditional telcos, this situation drives
the telcos to transform themselves: First, i.e.
from the late 80s, they tried expanding –
whether along the value chain, through the value
network, to neighbouring markets, to faster innovation,
and into the attackers’ markets. Then
they started spinning out, or transforming into
businesses where own assets and core competencies
could be used, like electrical installations,
property management, factoring, etc. At present,
after huge successes as well as failures and capital
scarcity, they are also retracting to their
“business core”, focusing on high efficiency.
When to stage such transformations – irrespective
of alternative chosen – is a major business
strategic concern: Without expanding into new
fileds, it means making the impossible choice
between “milking a sinking ship” 5) , or killing
a profitable business to prepare for a new and
smaller one.
ITS is also in this perspective of ICT development
just one among several arenas that offer to
the established ICT business a suitable lever in
the process of bringing about such a change:
The ICT development described above is visible
in the core of today’s ITS applications. Hence,
ITS is also a suitable lever to proactively transform
old business, and adapt to a new business
landscape – dramatically different to the traditional
telco and IT world.
The telcos cannot enter this field alone: The
incumbent technologies as well as businesses
involved in transport of people and goods are
from worlds unknown to the tele- and datacom
businesses. Thus, for technological as well as
business reasons, co-operation is needed. Hence,
there is a need for value creation modes based
on co-operation, not the antagonist behaviour
favoured by the competitive market ideal.
Transforming Transport: ICT
as Enabler, ITS is the Name
The volume of travel – work related, for leisure,
personal and goods transport – increases dramatically.
The reasons are many – not least the
affluence in our part of the world – population
increase, urbanisation, economic liberalism and
globalisation, and transport means becoming
cheaper.
4) Most clearly, this development is seen in the development of general standards – OSGI (Open Services Gateway Initiative, see www.osgi.com) being
one – creating standard interfaces between any network and any application in transportation, housing, industrial production, and general social
interaction. Thereby showing the telecom industry its future – and more modest – role as utility provider.
5) The metaphor mix would be less absurd if we could use the expression “milking a sinking sheep”!
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