Telecom or all

NARUC (National Association of Regulated Utility Commissions) makes a compelling case for competitive DA services and outlines several ways that it could become a reality. This aggregate of utility commissions in all 50 states includes rate regulation of 411-based DA services as one of its duties, and has submitted a resolution to the FCC calling for competition in the retail DA market.

The proliferation of pre-packaged (off-the-shelf) applications is taking place both vertically and horizontally. New products and channel relationships will shorten the time-to-deployment of increasingly common speech apps in defined industries and functional areas. Yet Zelos Group asserts that the border between an integrated development environment and a library of canned code with tools will always be muddy. Some customization will always be required.

Implementing an infrastructure for sharing common short codes (CSCs) in the U.S. is the first step in creating a new channel for telemedia services. Along with providing a new mechanism for direct response media, CSCs will threaten the primacy of 411 as a venue for enhanced directory applications.