Convergence Letter 26: Are telecoms taking on water?

Our Convergence Letters are published every two months. They mainly focus on issues about Telecoms, Media and Utilities, and they address topics as diverse as sustainable development or distribution.

Producing water and distributing it via a network appears to be one of the world’s oldest professions. However change is currently underway due to both a decrease in consumption and downward pressure on water prices. This brand new context requires an innovative business model in order to directly impact the end customer.

Water stakeholders are therefore modifying the water value chain and becoming - with the development of remote meter reading in particular - suppliers of infrastructures, data enhancers, solutions and web application providers, services traditionally provided by the telecommunications domain! At a time of telecom boxes and with the arrival of consumption control services and interfaces for the different utility flows (gas, water, and electricity), a new marketspace is therefore in the process of being created in household services in which telecoms and utilities can position themselves in a complementary manner.