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Anywhere Network and New Business Models

The media and communications industries are in chaos, according to a Yankee Group market study. Traditional business models are being severely disrupted as new innovations emerge and take advantage of the low market entry barriers created with Internet Protocol, MPEG and internet browser technology.

Yankee's notion of an "Anywhere Network" is a framework for navigating the developing chaos and profitably delivering services to the Anywhere Consumer and Anywhere Enterprise.

The Anywhere Network is a vision of a seamless and always-accessible intelligent infrastructure that provides a connection for everyone to everything from anywhere. Internet connectivity moved this control to companies such as eBay, Google and Yahoo!

The framework also encompasses community-led and user-centric solutions, which affords the users increased autonomy, service variety, flexibility and personalization.

In particular, the Anywhere Network:

- Will demand carriers implement solutions that increase the intrinsic value derived from distribution capabilities of their networks.

- Will drive commerce-centric solutions to support an increased demand for ad-hoc community and ultimately peer-to-peer transactions.

- Is destroying traditional media-centric business models.

- Will demand interoperability between competing solutions for VoIP and instant messaging that will drive the obsolescence of proprietary solutions.

- Has enabled search-centric solutions to firmly establish themselves in the early phase of the Anywhere Network and garner significant success with advertising revenue support. However, it will see it become increasingly commoditized with the increased need for standardized search capabilities throughout all facets of the Anywhere Network.

- Will see the proliferation of community-centric solutions as the Anywhere Consumer seeks greater specificity and control over the services delivered over the Anywhere Networks.

Media and communications industry regulators face the challenges of the market conditions created by the Anywhere Network. Policy makers are grappling with the migration of legacy network centric regulations, appropriate regimes to anticipate service evolution and appropriately manage the efficient use of scarce resources such as radio spectrum, and ensure that there is sufficient market competition to benefit the Anywhere Consumer.

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