Telecom service providers have more in common with content distributors all the time, according to two industry leaders speaking yesterday at NXTcomm.

As video content becomes increasingly mobile, personalized and social, wireless service providers are more than communications companies, Motorola CEO Ed Zander told the crowd in a Wednesday morning keynote presentation.

Pointing out that five of the top Web brands in the U.S. offer user-generated content, Zander said, “In the future, you’re a TV station, you’re a radio station, you’re a distributor of content.”

In fact, Bob Wright, vice chairman and executive officer of GE, said broadband providers must help content companies address the mutual challenges of content protection, new advertising models and industry standards.

As content becomes more user-generated, it also becomes more spontaneous, Zander said, a trend illustrated by a feature on the RAZR 2 phone that Motorola is shipping this summer called “See what I see,” which enables real-time video transmission in the middle of a voice call. “Imagine talking to your friend, you see something, you point your phone at it and shoot video of it and share it with him, all while you continue your conversation,” Zander said. “It’s a new concept in videoconferencing.”

And whereas video traditionally flowed from broadcasters to subscribers, video will circulate increasingly among members of social networks. “More and more, you and your community will interact with these [video-enabled] devices as opposed to always being broadcast to,” he said.

Mobile services represent the perfect platform to try new advertising that is more targeted and personalized, Wright said. He devoted much of his speech to piracy concerns, noting that ISPs “once seemed safely on the shore, watching us sink,” but now are in the same boat.

He noted that most major ISPs have agreed to notify customers identified as illegally downloading content, a process that “dramatically reduces repeat offenses,” Wright said. He applauded AT&T’s decision to work with content providers to explore ways to use technology to further reduce piracy.