EVOLUTION OF COMMUNICATION
Companies today increasingly spend on data telecommunication outside the office, especially with the increase in mobility of the workers. These may be in the form of basic SMS (short messaging service), MMS (multimedia messaging service),WAP (wireless application protocol), and wireless broadband or Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) . “For transactions requiring interpersonal relationships, a voice call using the mobile phone is the most predominant means of communication today; but for actual transactions where data and details have to be exchanged, electronic data communication like email or SMS and other forms of machine-to-machine communication via the Internet is the way to go,” says Robertson (Dick) Chiang, chief operation officer and chief technology officer at Internet service provider, Mosaic Communications Inc. (MozCom). Pascual agrees, adding that, aside from email, instant messaging is also gaining popularity now such that companies have activated their intra-office chat facilities or have opened up their security policies to also allow messages from outside the network. “The trend I see now is that more seem to be inclined with newer means of communication like VoIP, Internet chatting, social Web sites, and the rest all lumped into Web 2.0 applications,” Pascual explains, who adds that this trend could be due to the availability of these facilities and the perceived lower cost of using these communication methods in contrast to the traditional telephone lines. “There is certainly more data usage over phone lines today than, say, 10 years ago when data transmission was mostly just through fax or telex. Email, instant messaging, and other Web-based communication tools are indispensable today. It would be almost impossible to conduct business today without these tools,” Chiang adds. Asked how these trends have affected MozCom’s business model, Chiang says, “Mozcom pioneered Internet service in the Philippines, so I would like to think that we helped usher in this revolution in the country. But as the Internet infrastructure landscape has matured and, to a large part, has been commoditized by the telcos, Mozcom is going up the value chain ladder.” According to Chiang, the ISP is now more focused on providing total solutions to businesses and the Internet connectivity may come from someone else. According to Chiang, when the Internet boomed during the mid 1990s, everybody wanted to be a dialup ISP but the introduction of low-cost broadband (DSL and, now, wireless mobile broadband) “killed that industry and completely changed the playing field.” “From an industry with lots of entrepreneurial spirit, it has now become largely a telco game.
The technopreneurs now have to focus more on value-added content as the connectivity and infrastructure businesses have switched to the telcos,” Chiang explains. This is why, unlike before where the company was only interested in giving Internet connectivity to, say, a would-be online merchant, today, MozCom would be more interested in providing that same merchant a turnkey online store complete with online payments and online marketing services such as search engine optimization (SEO) and banner ad placements, among others. Companies today increasingly spend on data telecommunication outside the office, especially with the increase in mobility of the workers. These may be in the form of basic SMS (short messaging service), MMS (multimedia messaging service),WAP (wireless application protocol), and wireless broadband or Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) . “For transactions requiring interpersonal relationships, a voice call using the mobile phone is the most predominant means of communication today; but for actual transactions where data and details have to be exchanged, electronic data communication like email or SMS and other forms of machine-to-machine communication via the Internet is the way to go,” says Robertson (Dick) Chiang, chief operation officer and chief technology officer at Internet service provider, Mosaic Communications Inc. (MozCom). Pascual agrees, adding that, aside from email, instant messaging is also gaining popularity now such that companies have activated their intra-office chat facilities or have opened up their security policies to also allow messages from outside the network. “The trend I see now is that more seem to be inclined with newer means of communication like VoIP, Internet chatting, social Web sites, and the rest all lumped into Web 2.0 applications,” Pascual explains, who adds that this trend could be due to the availability of these facilities and the perceived lower cost of using these communication methods in contrast to the traditional telephone lines. “There is certainly more data usage over phone lines today than, say, 10 years ago when data transmission was mostly just through fax or telex. Email, instant messaging, and other Web-based communication tools are indispensable today. It would be almost impossible to conduct business today without these tools,” Chiang adds. Asked how these trends have affected MozCom’s business model, Chiang says, “Mozcom pioneered Internet service in the Philippines, so I would like to think that we helped usher in this revolution in the country. But as the Internet infrastructure landscape has matured and, to a large part, has been commoditized by the telcos, Mozcom is going up the value chain ladder.” According to Chiang, the ISP is now more focused on providing total solutions to businesses and the Internet connectivity may come from someone else. According to Chiang, when the Internet boomed during the mid 1990s, everybody wanted to be a dialup ISP but the introduction of low-cost broadband (DSL and, now, wireless mobile broadband) “killed that industry and completely changed the playing field.” “From an industry with lots of entrepreneurial spirit, it has now become largely a telco game. The technopreneurs now have to focus more on value-added content as the connectivity and infrastructure businesses have switched to the telcos,” Chiang explains. This is why, unlike before where the company was only interested in giving Internet connectivity to, say, a would-be online merchant, today, MozCom would be more interested in providing that same merchant a turnkey online store complete with online payments and online marketing services such as search engine optimization (SEO) and banner ad placements, among others.