For far too long, telecommunications has been regarded as something for someone else to worry about. It's been the province of tool-belt-wearing everymen or white-smocked eggheads in corporate research parks. The rest of us have taken it for granted.

But the end to widespread telco ignorance is fast approaching. Steve Russell, the former CIO at Christie's auction house in New York City, believes that telecom is "the first place to look for cost reductions" as well as an area overdue for greater IT attention. To paraphrase Russell, telecom competence is the most important area for CIO decisions regarding cost, innovation and risk management.

In a world where bandwidth is abundant and device choice near infinite, standards are in a state of flux, and consumer behavior shows little consensus. Confusion about the industry is rampant, especially in the short term.

In this month's CIO Habitat survey, we asked respondents to rank levels of confusion about the direction of the telecom field. A score of 1 represented "totally confused," and a 10 represented "totally comfortable." Interestingly, on average, respondents see their supply chain partners on the more comfortable (7.6) end of the scale, while they consider their primary telecom vendors to be more confused (4.3).

Where are these vendors going, and what are they doing on the way there? "I may not fully understand their business plans, especially when it involves acquisitions," admits a CIO at a state agency. A CIO from an oil company was less forgiving. "I wish to God the vendors would talk to me before they spend billions on research that does absolutely nothing for me. They show up after the money has been spent and ask, 'Can you use one of these?'"