Along with the recent news of broadcast TV spectrum being auctioned off to wireless providers (Google is purchasing $4.6 billion of this), AT&T Inc., the nation’s largest phone carrier, said Monday that it is getting out of the 129-year-old pay-phone business.
Broadcast TV and Analog phones are a dying breed. I predict all personal phones will be cellular or VOIP phones by the time my generation is in their 40’s. Not a single one of my peers has a land line. Ask any 20-something, you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who has one. Outside of business, I’m not sure that the land line has any more relevance.
It’s just redundant at this point; cell phones and VOIP work fine. Plus email, IM, social networks, etc. all provide more efficient forms of communication.
Cable TV is something else I’m hoping will reform in the future. Why must I still purchase an entire package of 50+ channels when all I want are 4? That is the exact reason I do not have cable in my house, I get all my programs a-la-carte online – with minimal commercials.
The old ways of doing things are dead or dying, and those who do not embrace a new way of doing things are destined to end up obsolete. Newspapers, frightened that people are going online for news are learning this quickly as well – but those who have embraced the internet and open-subscription models are doing just fine. Personal bloggers who have found a niche are also doing just fine.
There’s an opportunity for everyone and all forms of media, you just have to think a little different and be open to new possibilities. The way forward is not to be afraid and to try and sue or litigate your way forward since your business model may be threatened, but to embrace new technologies and new opportunities and leverage these tools in intelligent and innovative ways.