* Where did the telco user groups go?
Over the past 20-or-so-years, consumers of telecommunications services – including corporations, enterprises, government, etc. – have often banded together in formal and informal organizations for the common good.
In general, there have been two major functions served by these organizations. The first function, which was particularly important during the more monopolistic era of telecommunications, the organizations used their collective clout to influence the services being offered by a relatively small number of service providers. While falling short of “collective bargaining,” these organizations were taken quite seriously by the service providers, and the collective power of these organizations helped shape the telecommunications landscape.
Several of these organizations help national and regional trade shows as a significant part of their mission. Some of you will remember the International Communications Association (ICA), the Tele-Communications Association (TCA) on the West Coast, and the Communications Managers Association (CMA) in the Northeast.
The second function of these groups focused more on education and advancement of new technology. For many years, the ICA held an educational institute each summer. Additionally, special interest groups formed around new technologies, starting with T1 (Independent T1 Users’ Associations), plus user groups formed by the Frame Relay Forum and the ATM Forum. The ATM Forum’s Enterprise Networking Roundtable (ENR) was especially active in the early and mid 1990s.
Now, to the best of our knowledge, the vast majority of these organizations have vanished, and we’re feeling a great void. Why? Maybe there’s no longer a burning need to promote new technologies. More likely, in leaner telecommuications shops, we’re guessing that there are fewer resources available, so these volunteer organizations are finding it almost impossible to find staffing.
Admittedly, there are still some user advocacy organizations around, but not to the extent that we saw 10 or 15 years ago. Several of these are focused on specific vendor’s products. But we’d like to hear your thoughts on whether these organizations are still needed.
Is there a dire need for these organizations – so that need to help get the word out? Or are they quickly becoming as irrelevant as a 212a modem?
