The joys of following cell phone rate trends!
In the past two weeks, all of the major carriers decided on some form of the all-you-can-eat plan, which commoditizes cellular usage to some extent. This decision goes one step further in the wireless sector's inevitable march to being another set of dumb pipes just like cable and landline telecom. The cable providers will fight this, since it's hard to make money when you can't justify value-added services. But at the same time, it's really hard to be both an infrastructure provider and a content provider at the same time. (This is why great content creators like Electronic Arts aren't in charge of the Internets.) So, how good are each of the plans that came out this week? Let's take a look at each one.
IBM goes Global (with TEM)
Wait, doesn't IBM always have a global product for every possible technology in existence? Until February 20th, the answer was "apparently not." IBM announced last week that it is launching a global Telecom Expense Management solution complete with 6-8 weeks of consulting and followed up with a fully outsourced suite of services. The solution is going to be powered by Rivermine, which IBM started working with last year.
