“Untethered” Now is the Fundamental Reality of the End User Experience

If you have been in the telecom business for a while, it is normal to think of the “fixed network” business and the “mobile” business as two distinct fields of endeavor, and from a provider perspective, that often makes sense.

From the standpoint of an end user, customer, application or device, the distinction is blurring, though. In fact, one might argue that, with some notable exceptions in the business customer segment, “access” now is untethered, whatever the formal nature of the distribution network.

Whether one looks at smart phones, tablets or PCs, “access” typically is “untethered,” without the need of a cable connecting to a network. To be sure, mobile devices sometimes are used while a customer is actually “moving” about. But, most often, that is true of voice or messaging, with some light use of data services.

By volume, though, most use of Internet services and apps is conducted while users are stationary. That likely blurs, in the consumer's mind, all differences between "networks." It might go too far to say that most consumers see no difference between use of public Wi-Fi hotspots, home Wi-Fi, at-work Wi-Fi and the mobile network.



People understand that sometimes they "pay for access," and sometimes they do not. But that, in itself, might point to the near-commodity nature of broadband access, in some situations. When the chief difference is "sometimes I pay, sometimes I do not," that product has few differentiating characteristics, except the "sometimes I pay" aspect. 

And that creates a logical expectation, in the mind of the user, that the chief difference is whether one pays, or not. The single exception is that people also know they can use the mobile network "on the move," while the Wi-Fi experience happens when they are stationary, or sitting. 

But that is not much source of differentiation. Also, the growing realization that untethered usage does not require incremental spending should result in long term changes in end user preferences. People logically should start asking themselves how much extra value full mobility provides, if "no incremental charge" usage is possible when people are stationary.

To be sure, full mobile access will logically deserve a premium. But the growing issues will be "how much of a premium" is reasonable. Don't be surprised if the ultimate answer is "not that much."