Friday Review: Cattle class

Airlines have for a long time subsidised the cost of long-haul flights for most of their passengers by applying a significant premium to the price of business and first-class seats. It's a principle that could not only work well for telecoms network operators, but might also save them from an economy-class future. Over-the-top (OTT) providers are taking revenue away from telecoms operators and one way for the telcos to hit back is to offer a higher quality of service at a price premium. Telcos cannot allow that much revenue to be taken out of the system without replacing it with something; for example, they could charge for differentiated quality of service, suggested Carlos DaSilva, business development director at PCCW Global, speaking at Total Telecom's inaugural IPX Summit in London on Thursday. DaSilva is a strong proponent of the &quot…