AT&T, Qwest, and Verizon are collaborating with WhiteFence Inc. to promote Movearoo.com. Movearoo.com is a website that helps coordinate the task everyone loves to hate – moving. Through this telco partnership, Movearoo.com will feature telecom services from the participating companies. The three telcos are joining this effort to make these “moves, adds, and changes” exclusive to them. Competing services from cable companies and VoIP providers will not be featured on Movearoo.com. Customers can also arrange the transfer of other telco affiliated services including video. Both U-Verse and FiOS will be featured, but so will DBS/telco partnerships with DirecTV.
It’s an interesting development, in that large telcos have been slower to collaborate with each other on competitive issues, than say the cable industry. The independent telco industry has a rich legacy of cooperation and collaboration, fueled more by trying to achieve scale than necessarily confronting competition. I suspect we’ll see more competition fueled collaboration among all telecom players as the competitive landscape continues to heat up. One interesting caveat to this – I wonder who’s service will be recommended through Movearoo.com in suburban Dallas when/if Verizon’s FiOS service actively competes with AT&T U-Verse?
