“If you have a strategy that says that you’re going to make more money for less effort by being a dumb pipe, then being a dumb pipe is a good thing to be,” said Maguire.
He also suggested the use of the term dump pipe meant that networks were becoming a simple commodity, but stressed this was not necessarily a bad thing. He highlighting that the term commodity did not mean low value, but instead something that is of consistent quality.
Maguire’s comments were in response to a question presented to the panel regarding the challenges of OTT for wireless operators.
He also said that carriers needed to embrace and learn how to live with OTT players. “Skype on a smart-phone is something that you really have to bite the bullet about.”
Maguire’s viewpoint on dumb pipes was supported by fellow panelist Ahmed Al-Derbesti, executive director of international services at Qtel, who said that dumb pipes were not actually dumb and could be very lucrative.
