Comcast signs new mail deal

Time was that, if you were a broadband provider of any size or reputation, that you used Openwave (aka software.com, phone.com and others) for your messaging products offered to consumers. Not the cheapest solution, but did what it said on the box and no doubt about its scalability in large carrier grade ISPs.

Comcast have broken the mould big time, with a partnership with a company called Zimbra that is basing its technology on open source software. The deal involves several other partners to provide a suite of services to their end subscribers - including contacts organisers Plaxo and anti spam leaders Cloudmark, whose technology is also based on open source - in their case, SpamAssassin.

This is a clear move away from the "all your eggs in one basket" solutions that many ISPs have implemented, and with Comcast's reputation for being an innovator and market leader, we can only expect that the others will go this way too.

The use of open source is also a trend that should be expected to be seen as traditional software providers have had their model changed through the antics of Google, and large ISPs rush to do deals with MSN and Google, resulting in the ISP being paid to provide services by search revenue - with them no longer being lumped with licensing fees.

Will any of the big guys in the UK follow suit?