Verizon recently said they are going to institute some dramatic energy-efficiency standards, designed to reduce by 20% the power consumed by new telecom-related equipment starting Jan. 1, 2009.

Verizon is moving on its own because the industry standards process for reducing power consumption, both to reduce costs and protect the environment, isn’t moving fast enough, said Chuck Graff, director-corporate network and technology. During Verizon’s first energy summit last year, the company did its own polling of vendors participating, and most agreed they could meet a 10% to 15% reduction in power consumption for their new equipment. Verizon’s Graff determined they could do better, so the company pushed the objective to 20%.

Going green isn’t for the faint of heart, is it?

That’s what I find so interesting about our segment of the industry. For the most part, the people behind it aren’t timid about taking risks.  Several other trends that show how our segment of the industry is taking the bull by the telecom horns are highlighted in one of this month’s articles, Great Change or Danger Ahead in the OSP?  Four Economic Trends Sure to Change Our Segment of the Telecom Industry, written by Brian Lackovic.

In it, this AT&T OSPE Manager discusses how some up-and-coming developments in our segment of the telecom world will truly impact our success on both a micro and macro scale. As an example, he addresses the trend of specialization by explaining that OSP tasks are now specialized to such precision that there is no longer such a thing as a construction crew. There is a line crew, a splicing crew, and a cutover crew. From a business process standpoint, this sounds like a smart idea indeed. But what does this mean for the customer? He argues that in some companies specialization has occurred to the point where the customer cannot recognize individual groups with their parent organization either. THAT could be problematic.

Other micro trends he brings to our attention include outsourcing, miniaturization, and integrating the Wireless Fixed Networks (FN) with the OSP. All of these have great potential to make us raise our eyes to the future and greet the challenges head on, or bury our head in the sand and hope it all goes away.

To borrow Lackovic’s words: Change too fast and an organization can self-destruct. Change too slowly and competition can make an organization obsolete. 

Sure, it ain’t the same old same old OSP is it? What an incredibly daunting but exciting time to be in our segment of the business. Sign me up for 10 more years!