OTT communication, an acronym implying “over the top,” with relation to web browsing, is any web enterprise that makes use of the web to facilitate browser communications. It amounts to a value-added feature of web browsing.
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Ott communication maximizing the benefit of use of the web
1. OTT Communication - Maximizing The Benefit Of Use Of The Web
OTT communication, an acronym implying “over the top,” with relation to web browsing, is any
web enterprise that makes use of the web to facilitate browser communications. It amounts to a
value-added feature of web browsing.
Consider the web as a road by which we would travel from one place to another. There are
variable road conditions, intersections, road blacks, detours and other traffic with which to
contend as we make our way along the road. There are also a variety of vehicle choices available
to us to accommodate our travel needs.
Some vehicles are faster and better equipped to deal with the complexities of the road to
facilitate our travel than others. These better-equipped vehicles are the equivalent of OTT
communication; they allow faster, more reliable communication over the web.
But it does not stop there. Beyond the better vehicles, OTT communication might also equate to
after-market accessories we can add to an already improved vehicle to enhance its capabilities of
travel more effectively, reliably and efficiently. A better set of tires to handle more severe road
conditions than provided by the vehicle manufacturer would equate to OTT communication.
For example, the development of a smart phone allowed our wireless engagement with the web,
improving on our previously limited access by Ethernet wire was an application of OTT
communication. Further, using Skype as a means to engage faster and cheaper world-wide
communication of both voice and video over the web is an added example of OTT
communication, and that technology can ride on the development of the smart phone as an
enhanced OTT communication feature.
Your ISP (Internet service provider) is the road on which the enhancements of OTT
communication offer efficient communications on the web. However, ever since traditional
telephonic communications media and Internet media have combined over the same service
wired and wireless links, competition between communications network services and OTT
communication services has reached a critical mass as OTTs are overtaking the market because
they can make use of the road with more efficient and cost effective vehicles than simultaneously
provided by traditional network services.
Current network carrier laws and regulations were structured to allow innovation of use over the
network such as has been developed by OTT communication without the original network
carriers being able to restrict those innovations. Even though the network carriers are in
competition with OTT service providers, all must be allowed free use of the network; network
carriers cannot impose toll booths on the road and they cannot impose restrictions on the types of
vehicles that use it.
As a response, some network providers are beginning to vertically integrate OTT services
themselves, which they are free to do. All of this competition is good for the market. As long as
network providers continue to create new roads and upgrade existing roads, and as long as OTTs
2. continue to facilitate use of the road, users are assured of ever increasing effective and efficient
communications.