RebTel, Jajah and others should know what they are up against

Once again, Andy is right on target in his post about companies such as RebTel and Jajah that offer solutions that seem to sidestep traditional telephony calling infrastructures to offer attractive products and services.

Andy indicates his reservations about the likelihood for success for such offerings "beyond simply user growth without carrier cooperation (and possible retaliation) as my concerns start from there because none of the mobile operators seem to be breaking ranks (too) quickly."

"What I question is how they plan to overcome the resistance of the carriers, both mobile and data, who seem to continually want to keep forward looking technology in the dark rooms and just make money based upon their roots of being 1.0 telcos first," Andy points out.

The central point Andy seems to be making is that startups who are so wrapped up in their own special offerings should not underestimate the forces they are going up against.

"But for these new 2.0 ideas to advance, at the end of the day they have to be favorable to the insider forces in power that really run the world of mobile telephony around the globe," Andy writes. "Those groups are far broader in reach than the VC's and have more to do with what happens when, and are really at the heart of the key issues we all are aware of like the net neutrality issue, as well as these new advanced services offers, because both transcend economics, politics, finance, legislation, regulation and technology."

Well said, Andy