Some things go together like a horse and carriage – but applications and carriage look like being well and truly separate if regulators have their way with network neutrality. But what does it practically mean for customers and operators: aren’t they already separating?

Many people use their email, calendar, eBay, Skype, browsers, instant messaging and a dozen other applications on a range of devices and networks. They typically have different versions of these applications on each device, but their user name and password gives a similar experience on any network or device.

Are there any applications that are location or network specific? Melbourne tramTRACKER and TV guide aren’t much use in Sydney, but there aren’t many that are location dependent. Similarly, there aren’t many that are network specific for most people. Network independence is valuable precisely because many people have a mobile, laptop and home PC and might occasionally use an internet café.

Convergence has been coming for 15 years, but it is obvious in the devices in store for Christmas 2009 – lots of different sizes, but the same applications.

And while some families still have those first email addresses - “thesmithfamily@ISP.com”- and just one PC, many of us are moving into a world of ubiquitous connectivity.

So why do operators keep trying to add value to networks through unique services? Because carriage revenues alone aren’t enough to drive growth. The problem for operators is that it is increasingly difficult to be the best source of any more than a tiny fraction of the world’s valued content and applications. Even Disney, AOL and Microsoft have failed to roundup much of the worlds content and services – though that hasn’t stopped Apple trying as well.

A product manager in a national operator can only do so much: bundle a news service, a game, coverage of a particular sport or an email service that some of your customers will value. Even then the operator may not be the sole source of even those services.

Seeing the problem differently can lead to different answers. Operators must stop thinking solely as a content destination or a single network provider trying to add value to that network. First, stand next to the consumer or enterprise customer and look at what these customers are really trying to do: the most universal needs are that people want to connect with other people and businesses, while businesses want to connect with other businesses and customers. Networks are just a means to an end - making an emotional connection or business transaction - and simple connectivity is already solved for many of us through a variety of devices and networks.

What isn’t solved is simplicity, consistency, personalisation, privacy, security and the ability to complete interactions and transactions in just a few steps. This applies to the 3% or so of income spent by Australians on communications, but also and more importantly, the 97% of income and life which can be enabled by communications.

MAKE IT SIMPLE Customers want operators to make it simple to take any and every kind of network access. It’s hard enough just keeping track of a work persona (fred@employer.com, telephone number, passwords), individual persona (fred@mobileoperator.com etc) and household persona (fredsfamily@isp.com).

This generation of customers want a contemporary relationship. The bill in the mail worked for the Postmaster General era of communications as did requiring a written application for service. Customers today expect better than an email telling them to look online and download a PDF of a bill. This is as sensible in 2009 as printing an SMS or asking to borrow someone’s Facebook. The customer relationship can be part of the service like most web centric businesses – using networks for business isn’t foreign to most customers and shouldn’t be to operators. Finally, make it easy for the other 97% of the customers’ life. Most of us have relationships with a major telco, major bank and major airline. Why can’t we identify ourselves, book and pay with one click on the chosen flight on a smartphone. Better still, if integrated with your employer’s approval processes it might be possible to arrange a flight in less time than it takes to fly from Melbourne to Sydney. Here operators, consumers, businesses and the government are aligned – an efficient networked economy is good for all of us. It is also a great business opportunity for operators.

But returning to the question of applications separating from networks: operators have little choice but to build their businesses from the customers in and from applications down (as opposed to the earlier approach - from the network up and out). Operators must see themselves and the customers’ devices as the starting point of each customer’s journey, and leverage their relationship as much as networks in helping the customers reach their goals.

This might seem like the Holy Grail that is forever pursued, but never reached, except that real progress has been made with Subscriber Data Management (SDM). The Home Location Register of the mobile network is growing up to specify and manage the customer’s services on any network – effectively putting the customer in control of the network. Policy is a related area: ensuring each customer gets the capacity that they have paid for – again potentially across all of the operator’s networks. SDM can also provide “single sign on” to multiple service providers and solve the flight booking problem. These are united by being about the customer as much as the network – the right balance for operators in competing with others who will also leverage applications and devices.

So while it is hard not to conclude that applications are separating from networks, the same forces make it imperative that operators reunite with customers in solving everyday problems.

Bob James is part of Nokia Siemens Networks consulting practice and provides advice to operators on how changes in technology impact business models.