We’ve been covering this topic on this blog and are working on a story for an upcoming issue of Telephony.

Would love to get reader feedback on this poll:

I’ve had a chance to interact with Thomas Howe a few times now. A story here. A podcast there.

But holy smokes, did Thomas cut to the heart of the matter with his latest blog post “Dear Carriers, They Didn’t Need You.”

In it, Howe talks about a series of telephony “mashup” contests he’s either participated in or helped sponsor in the past few months, including a “Reinventing Voice” contest that vendor Sylantro is holding this week, with his help. Let’s let Thomas take it from here:

I wrote a mashup to prove to myself and the audience that someone could write a compelling business application using voice that didn’t require large investment in equipment, a huge development staff, customer education or mass marketing. In short, I didn’t really need to work with a particular carrier. I think I succeeded, and I wasn’t alone. Our contestants proved it [too]. They didn’t need to get close to a carrier to create a compelling voice application. In fact, not to rub it in your face… but not involving you was a good thing for all concerned.Let me emphasize the totality of my statement. They didn’t use your new services standard IMS. They don’t use the application layer API : Parlay. They don’t use SS7. They don’t speak AIN. They don’t go to the same shows you do - they don’t read the same magazines. I bet they have never called you. They didn’t call Verizon - they didn’t call AT&T. They certainly used some Internet connectivity in the colocation center, but I absolutely guarantee they don’t know or care who provided the bits. I can guarantee that the services running on those bits are much more compelling, and have business cases that will knock your socks off. My dear carriers, this should get your attention, because I challenge you to list for me the last ten new voice services that were not only compelling, but made serious money. Did your entire list appear in the last twelve months? Didn’t think so.

Um, wow.

That’s not hyperbole, that’s feet-on-the-ground from a self-proclaimed former teleco-geek and current “Web scripting guy.” Thomas has taken the time to learn the Web world of application development — AJAX, Web APIs, Ruby On Rails — and he hasn’t looked back. In fact, he’s bet his career on it. And he’s not building Facebook-extensions or VoIP-click-to-calls. His focus is on mission-critical Web/telephony apps upon which companies can run — or reinvent — their businesses.

So what is Howe looking for from telcos? It’s a good question, and one I’ve wondered about myself. What exactly do service providers need to do to open up their networks and services to Web-based application developers? Howe has at least his answer:

Take a minute to count how many web scripting guys are out there. Our message is quite simple : if you would just simply provide some compelling APIs that we could use in our voice mashups, we just MIGHT start to need you. Or at least we’d use you. Really, we would.What sorts of APIs? How about an API that I can use to get the location of a cell phone? What about one that will let me send a simple voice message to any phone? How about one that gives me click to dial? One that lets me setup a conference call? I could use those as I’m extending a business process for some fortune 500 company. It would be cool - and it would pay the bills. For both of us!

If you’re a service provider that has tip-toed curiously over to this Telephony 2.0 blog, this appears to be a legitimate call to arms pointed right at you.

What do you think of Howe’s charges — and his vision? Does it ring true, or is it off-base. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

UPDATE: Sylantro and Thomas Howe Co. announced the winners of its mashup contest:

Infosys Technologies Ltd. developed an innovative and intelligent mashup of a subscriber’s personal information management system (like Calendar, Contact address book,etc.) and Sylantro Synapps Call Web Services named “CallPal.” CallPal delivers the incoming call to a home, business or mobile phone based upon caller identity, time of call and availability. The caller identity is received from the contact address book and availability from their calendar. CallPal is capable of proactive and automatic scheduling of appointments, notification of availability and integrated messaging. In addition to providing a creative mashup of voice technology, the Infosys team identified how this new application service could add billions of dollars in revenue to carriers by improving the call completion success rate and providing new monthly revenues for value added services.

Read more about this app and the second and third place winners as well.

UPDATE 2: Over at the similarly-named Telco 2.0 blog (a member of our blogroll as well), a deeper analysis of the telephony mashup environment, including a look at deploying Howe’s original doctor alert app in the real world. Well worth a read.

UPDATE 3: Howe continues his roll with a rant on IMS –particularly why it isn’t what application developers need to build true telephony-integrated applications, or as he puts it: Why IMS Stifles Innovation.