The future for recharging networks?

Those countries that are pioneering electric vehicles have a common problem: too many regional and/or competing recharging networks. What that means for EV drivers is a lack of interoperability, or, put more simply, they cannot roam. Just as with mobile phones in the early stages of the market (you remember the 80's?) they work if you don't move around much. If you do, forget it. If you are an EV driver you need multiple memberships, which means multiple RFID cards, and usually multiple subscriptions. An expensive and largely unsatisfactory situation.
So what is the solution? Firstly it's a technology shift. Instead of using locally authenticated charge points accessed by RFID cards, operated by uploading whitelists to every charge point (expensive and time consuming), the solution lies in remote authentication via the back office (the CPMS, or charge point management system). The technology for the charge point is emerging and it's called OCPP - open charge point protocol.
The second solution is consolidation. This can happen in two ways, either by network operators side stepping their egos and adopting a common back office and standards such as OCPP; and by market consolidation, when one operator buys or merges with another, as we are now starting to see in the US, such as CarCharging Group's acquisition of 350Green; and when vehicle manufacturers take stakes in EVSE (electric vehicle supply equipment) vendors (charge point manufacturers), such as BMW's recent investment in Coulomb.
In the coming months and years we will see a lot of development in this space, the pace of which will be driven by the time it takes each player to formulate a coherent strategy in this dynamic marketplace.