According to Business 2.0, British Telecom is building an all-in-one IP network for voice, data and video. CTO Matt Bross envisions Lego-style building blocks of customizable digital infrastructure:
For instance, a kid in London with BT service could become his own music label on the cheap by uploading his favorite mashups to a BT data center; BT provides digital rights protection, storage and billing software.
BT's Lego box, it seems, contains three categories of interconnectable blocks. The network and data center facilities form the foundation; customers have 17 European locations to choose from. Next come computing power and storage space. But the centerpiece of Bross' $18 billion masterplan is software, through which users can tailor various resources to their needs. After all, online storage alone doesn't mini music labels make; plug-and-play billing and digital rights management solutions are what really empower musicians.
The logical next step might be for BT to become a distribution channel for its customers' products. Earlier this week, everyone was talking about Verizon's hopes that the introduction of LG's Chocolate phone/media player as its latest handset option would help generate revenue from music downloads. If only BT could bring together buyers and sellers among its web hosting, DSL and mobile phone subscribers...
Put in this perspective, BT's rumored bid (which it denies making) for Bebo (a social network with 25 million+ members) makes sense.
Social commerce is an unstoppable force. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal wrote about Christine Dolce, a MySpace member who's launched a clothing brand based on the following she's built. And C|Net cautioned that active sponsor participation is blurring the line between social networking and marketing pitches.
Unlike News Corp, which benefits from third-party commercial activity on MySpace only through ad sales, BT would be in a position to offer Bebo's members and sponsors a scalable ecommerce infrastructure that's fully integrated with their profiles. How awesome is that?
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