Mobile operators, IT and outsourcing

One of the perennial themes in conversations with operators and vendors in the enterprise mobility space is the general inability of many mobile carriers to really understand corporate IT. Generally, the consensus view is that the cellular industry's marketing and sales functions are not up to the task of pitching "solutions" - let alone grasping the technical aspects of integration with existing enterprise computing and networking systems. Hence the never-ending stream of pie-in-the-sky mobile-only solutions like mobile IP centrex or SIM-authenticated WiFi, which don't really fit with the nasty realities of legacy systems, enterprise software architectures and corporate network security.

I mean, if you were an IT Director or CIO of a large firm, would you really trust the IT and systems integration capabilities of an operator that thinks about outsourcing its own in-house platforms?