Location based services another missed Telco2.0 opportunity

Telco's went out of their way to prove that they have no position in the Location Based Services market this month:
- Super colleague mailed the story of Nulaz a Dutch Location based service idea. They presented at the Dutch Telecom Society and complained that KPN wouldn't give them access to their Location information as KPN was of the opinion that that their own LBS services/brainswaves were too competitive to allow others use of the data
- Different but equally valued colleague, different incumbent of different country thought similarly of itself. Colleague forwarded a mail he received regarding an opportunity for the use of Location Based Services to the incumbent . Telco reaction: OOH cant tell you the super secretive commercially sensitive LBS ideas we have. No, we might loose money here, don't you know we are set to be a major LBS player?

Twice! a network saying no to someone paying for LBS information. Well dear Web 2.0 start ups and Telco's with 2.0 aspiration, forget about the Telco playing any role in this market. Google has just donated its LBS knowledge to the world and now you can find out where your potential customers are for free.

Dear Telco's why do you say no to free money from people who might be willing to pay you for some of your network location knowledge? You might have had a minor competitive edge with the real time location knowledge. The minor money companys might have paid you would have been free money for minimal effort. Instead you thought you could stun the world with your own inventions. (You are not global players, services companies are. You have access to a small part of your local market, service companies to everyone in the world) Now the world bypasses you and uses the stuff you already broadcast and  other antenna's broadcast for free.