Expectation and Realisation The last decade has seen massive acceleration in the introduction of new technologies and what seemed to be an insatiable demand for IT. Just look at the changes that we have seen: WAP, GPRS, xDSL, DWDM, VoIP, xSPs and hosted services, Bluetooth, B2B and B2C, XML, Java, and others. The thirst for new things has made the market fickle; just look what’s happened to Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). WAP was/is basically a good idea with a good foundation just oversold (some might argue under-delivered?) | Next Generation Network Services Neill Wilkinson Copyright 2002 John Wiley Sons Ltd ISBNs 0-471-48667-1 Hardback 0-470-84603-8 Electronic 14 Expectation and Realisation TOO MUCH TOO SOON The last decade has seen massive acceleration in the introduction of new technologies and what seemed to be an insatiable demand for IT. Just look at the changes that we have seen WAP GPRS xDSL DWDM VoIP xSPs and hosted services Bluetooth B2B and B2C XML Java and others. The thirst for new things has made the market fickle just look what s happened to Wireless Application Protocol WAP . WAP was is basically a good idea with a good foundation just oversold some might argue under-delivered . As the hype fell away and the realisation set in that WAP over 2G data kbps wasn t going to set the world on fire just as readily as the investment came the industry and media have nailed the coffin shut What s interesting is in the Far East NTT DoCoMo s equivalent service i-mode has had a resounding success in this area in excess of 24 million subscribers . The free lunch syndrome could well have fuelled this demand. The Internet model seemed to imply you could have services for free and as Internet Service Providers ISPs strove to offer free access numbers this vision became even more believable. The issue was that revenues had to be made somewhere and the search centred on selling advertising space in portals. Voice seemed to be a no go area even companies with a massive investment in voice were treating voice as an evil product and turning their backs on it as quickly as they could to rush to invest in the Internet bubble. The massive investments and greed with no return soon created a lack of confidence in the market that unfortunately resulted in collapse of investment and lack of confi 176 EXPECTATION AND REALISATION dence that has not only affected the Internet start-ups but the solid telecommunications businesses. Now it s easy to make these observations in hindsight it always .
