If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss...
Rudyard Kipling's "If" could be a mantra for Qwest Communications, the telecom that was born of a railroad entrepreneur's idea to lay fiber along his rail lines. It's approached corporate death on a number of occasions after taking, well, ill-advised risks: It's seen several of its execs go to prison, has nearly gone bankrupt and has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster.
The company has also rarely followed the lead of its bigger rivals. And, it's at it again. This time, Qwest is bucking the walled-garden approach of AT&T, Verizon and the like and says it's going to place its eggs in the OTT basket instead, riding the back of partners like DirecTV into the online future. As Neil Cox, Qwest's EVP of product development and management said at the TM Forum in Orlando: "Only sports need to be live. We see these walled-garden IPTV models breaking down. We see a tremendous amount of over-the-top video."
Cox said Qwest will focus on using its expertise, transport, to help "provide a really rich customer experience."
For more:
- see this Cnet article
Related article:
Qwest talks about its network buildout