The past decade has been a great time to be a consumer. Smartphones, tablets, smart home appliances and many other innovations have improved the user experience and made convenience a key part of our day-to-day lives.

Technology trends have also affected service providers and the enterprise, but unlike the consumer, their time to reach their maximum potential is now.

TMC CEO Rich Tehrani recently sat down with Charlie Vogt, CEO at GENBAND, for a keynote session at ITEXPO Miami to discuss opportunities for service providers and enterprises, how carriers are preparing for the future and what we can expect to see from GENBAND in the upcoming months.

Vogt predicts the consumer market to level out. Now’s the time for businesses, the enterprise market, service providers and IT to take advantage of technology, bandwidth and platforms that are available. As long as carriers own access, such as spectrum and broadband, they’re relevant and not going away. The challenge they face, according to Vogt, is figuring out who they want to be.

The single biggest disadvantage large carriers have is that they can’t adapt to the rapid change the market experiences about every 24 months.

Vogt made sure to emphasize the importance of broadband. “It’s truly changed the landscape – not a whole lot of apps would be delivered if it weren’t for broadband access,” Vogt said. “Broadband access is here, accelerating for us to think about innovation and creating opportunities for innovative people.”

An example Vogt spotlighted in the keynote was Netflix, which changed everything about video streaming by taking advantage of broadband access. About 50 percent of U.S. households now subscribe to Netflix, demonstrating the opportunities Vogt mentioned.

Vogt emphasizes mobility in enterprises, saying smartphones have become the ultimate mobile office of the future. Wireless has already changed the dynamics and landscape regardless if you are a consumer, employee or enterprise, and will continue to revolutionize the industry.

The size of businesses is also a factor that has changed with technology – it raises the question, “Is it more competitive to be smaller and more agile?” There’s an abundance of smaller companies and startups today that have the same capabilities as large enterprises.

GENDBAND, for example, has mastered the ability to do more with less.

The small company size means there are fewer decision makers, so the decision cycle shrinks, less money is spent and efficiency rises. On the other hand, the efficiency and success of small businesses does not help the alarming unemployment rate. Companies are faced with the challenge of finding innovative ways to bring those people back into the workplace. 

Stay tuned to see how GENBAND and other enterprises take advantage of this opportunity.