Report: LTE access will save UK consumers £20B over next decade

​The wide-scale deployment of LTE in the UK will save consumers £20 billion by providing them with access to high-speed mobile services, according to a report from telecoms regulator Ofcom.
Ofcom maintains the advantage access to LTE will bring to the UK public and the economy will "very significantly" exceed the immediate financial windfall raised by the auction, according to the Financial Times.

"Ofcom's LTE auction is designed to deliver the maximum benefit to the UK," Ofcom chief Ed Richards told the FT. "We believe that this is likely to be at least £20 billion over the next 10 years for consumers alone who will be able to access new digital services across the country."
"It will also make a very significant contribution to the UK GDP through new mobile revenues, employment opportunities and software development," he said.

Asked how Ofcom had calculated this huge saving, its economists told the FT they had used a "consumer surplus" figure--a measure of the benefit that consumers gain from purchasing goods and services, a method often used when evaluating the market impact of government intervention.
Bidding has started for the UK's LTE spectrum auction, which will see the companies bidding for frequencies in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands. EE, Vodafone, Telefónica's O2 UK and 3UK are all bidding, as is BT, Hong Kong's PCCW and managed networks firm MLL Telecom. While the UK government has publicly said the auction is expected to produce £3.5 billion in revenue, analysts have estimated that the amounts raised could be between £2 billion and £4 billion.

Ofcom, which is running the auction process, would not confirm the £3.5 billion figure, but added that the aim was for at least four different operators to win adequate spectrum to operate national LTE networks.

EE, Vodafone, O2 and 3UK are most likely to compete fiercely to secure the prime lower frequency bands better able to carry mobile internet services. The other three bidders--BT, PCCW and MLL--are expected to vie for higher frequencies more suitable for local area mobile broadband.
According to Ofcom, bids are being placed online over secure connections, using software that has been developed specifically for the auction. The bidding will continue over several rounds and is expected to take a number of weeks until the final winners are announced.
For more:
- see this FT article (sub. req.)

Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/report-lte-access-will-save-uk-consumers-20b-over-next-decade/2013-01-25?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Study: OTT is an opportunity as operators look to boost revenues through alliances

​Marketers in the $1.3 trillion global telecommunications industry are being both challenged and enabled by free over-the-top (OTT) communications service providers, such as Google, Skype and Facebook. A new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council study, conducted in partnership with HP, shows that while these companies are supplying customers with sophisticated web-based features that are competing with fixed and mobile operators, OTT players are also being courted for partnerships and revenue-sharing opportunities by traditional communications services providers (CSPs).
Besides the legacy local and long-distance wire line phone services, the CSP sector also includes wireless communications, Internet services, fiber optics networks, cable TV networks and commercial satellite communications.

Some 44 percent of telco marketers who participated in the CMO Council's new "Profitability From Subscriber Acuity" study during the second to fourth quarters of 2012 are actively exploring OTT partnerships and revenue-sharing opportunities. In addition, 31 percent are identifying potential revenue streams from new products or services that can be offered to OTT players, including subscriber analytics and behavioral insights. This represents a significant shift in the mindset of telco marketers. Just one year ago, a CMO Council study dubbed "Dexterity From Subscriber Complexity" reported that OTT represented a threat, not an opportunity. In that study, 88 percent of executives considered OTT innovators as competitors, and only 6 percent were actively forging partnerships.
"This shift tracks with marketing's role of leading the charge for new market and revenue opportunities," said Liz Miller, Vice President of Programs for the CMO Council. "What is clear from this study is that marketing has been tasked with owning the customer experience and driving bottom-line revenue improvements. Considering that research has put the potential revenue loss from OTT starting at $13.8 billion in 2011 alone, it is not surprising that telco marketers see OTT as an opportunity to exploit."

While 222 CSP marketers participating in the study have oversight across the majority of customer touchpoints that most impact customer experience, they are still seeking deeper views into key front-line areas like customer support, in-store strategy and channel management. To facilitate the flow of information and processes across these areas, marketing is also taking a more active role in identifying key technology platforms and solutions as 38 percent of respondents serve as the key decision makers while an additional 38 percent serve as key influencers in the technology selection process.

But despite the significant commitment to advancing the customer experience, marketers are being stymied by a lack of visibility and insight into critical areas of intelligence and analytics. Only 5 percent of marketers have access to an automated solution that leverages data and intelligence to enable improved decisions or personalize individual engagements.
This leaves most organizations to rely on:

• Monthly meetings where insights and intelligence are shared with senior management (59 percent)
• Monthly customer insight and analytics reports (57 percent)
• Analytics dashboards with limited general user profile information (43 percent)

"This lack of visibility into the key drivers of customer behavior leaves a significant opportunity to drive incremental revenue and improve engagement performance," said Miguel Carrero, Director of Actionable Customer Intelligence Solutions, HP Enterprise Services. "Marketing is being asked to sway behaviors but simply does not have the tools needed to make those core decisions effectively. However, this research also shows that above all else, marketers understand what they need to be more effective and what points of measurement will enable real change and improvements in the customer experience."
Additional key findings from the report show that:

• Marketing is deeply involved in identifying and developing business opportunities, including new pricing plans or new products and services. Twenty-nine percent are driving the process while 36 percent are deeply involved as the key contributor.
• Fifty-four percent of marketers are being brought into the pricing and product development discussion from the very start of the process versus 9 percent who feel they are brought in too late in the cycle.
• Siloed data is the top reason marketers feel held back in their ability to influence and optimize pricing models. This is followed by the lack of a complete view of the customer (39 percent) and a corporate mindset that is resistant to change (37 percent).
• Nearly one in four marketers feels as if he or she is introducing new pricing plans to customers all the time and is heavily leveraging in-store engagements, email and advertising in both traditional and online channels. Unfortunately, half of respondents feel these channels are only moderately effective.

The detailed findings of this study, along with summaries of in-depth interviews with marketing leaders from global CSPs including AT&T, Bell Canada, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, MTN, Optus, Orange, Sprint, STC VIVA, Telefonica, Telstra, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone are included in the 90-page comprehensive report, now available for download from (www.cmocouncil.org/r/profitability-from-subscriber-acuity).  The study is outlined question by question through summary findings and detailed charts and also includes an infographic.

Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/press-releases/telco-marketers-eye-over-top-players-opportunity-not-threat

VoLTE – 4G’s next big test (Opinion from Anite)

​In 2012, SKT and LG U+ in South Korea, as well as MetroPCS in the United States, all announced the launch of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) networks. Equally, in recent months, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 10.1, complete with VoLTE capability. However, despite the apparent commercial readiness of VoLTE services, Paul Beaver, Products Director at device test and measurement specialists, Anite, suggests that “Over the Top” (OTT) providers of Voice over IP (VoIP) services still remain a very real threat to mobile operators. In order to combat this threat, operators will need to differentiate themselves from OTT players, through the provision of a top quality voice service. The delivery of this high level of service quality, as well as the speed at which VoLTE will enter the market is, as Beaver explains, indivisibly linked to the evolution of testing.

Mobile voice goes over the top – The current VoLTE market

Global LTE deployments are continuing to rise and the technology is gaining ever more market recognition. However, LTE possesses a key limitation that the industry is increasingly looking to resolve – voice. Even in light of VoLTE launches in South Korea and the United States, the majority of LTE networks are still only able to support data and cannot handle voice calls – instead the user is transferred to a legacy 2G/3G network whenever they want to make a call. This situation is counter intuitive, considering that traditionally, the principal role of a mobile operator is to supply voice services. While LTE networks have been primarily launched in order to cater for the increasing market demand for data services, the omission of voice services has nevertheless left operators in a vulnerable position.

If operators fail to develop solutions that will allow voice calls to be made over LTE networks then they will be unable to decommission legacy networks. This will leave them unable to benefit from the superior spectrum utilisation and cost efficiency that LTE offers over legacy technologies. Equally, this failure would impact on user experience, with call setup delays and unreliability when switching to the legacy network all impacting on the operators’ ability to provide a top quality voice service. In turn, this poor service quality will put operators at risk of losing their position as the primary suppliers of premium voice services, leaving OTT players ideally placed to supersede them in the mobile voice market.

Industry challenges – Quality control for VoLTE

It is undoubtedly early days for VoLTE, and the technology remains largely at the trial stage. Currently, device manufacturers, chipset vendors and operators are all putting VoLTE through its paces. Because of VoLTE’s technological infancy, there is a diverse range of interpretations among mobile operators, in terms of how best to integrate VoLTE in networks and devices. This wide range of different implementations may present a significant challenge to operators in terms of interoperability. Equally, while roaming may be taken for granted with legacy technologies, it is not guaranteed to work for VoLTE unless these interoperability issues can be resolved, and as a result the current expected levels of service quality may be compromised.

Although the industry in general – and the GSMA in particular – is working towards a harmonisation to ensure VoLTE is applied in a consistent way, there is currently no ‘one size fits all’ VoLTE solution for operators. So in order to overcome this challenge operators must undertake a rigorous programme of VoLTE testing. By testing in the laboratory, operators can incorporate a diverse range of variable conditions into their test programmes. Full network roaming capability will eventually need to be enabled for VoLTE, and owing to diverse interpretations of the technology, this will only seek to present further interoperability challenges for the industry. Again, thoroughly testing devices for interoperability in the lab will play a key role in achieving full network roaming capability for VoLTE programmes. Device Manufacturers will need to ensure that VoLTE does not have a detrimental effect on device performance, and that devices are capable of handling VoLTE calls upon their introduction to the market. Regardless of the network infrastructure, mobile subscribers will continue to expect a carrier grade voice service on their mobile device. A ‘best effort’ VoIP type service will not suffice and operators will have to ensure that VoLTE offers excellent levels of quality and performance. If VoLTE fails to provide this level of service then it is liable to gain a negative perception among consumers.

The road ahead – VoLTE takes a test drive
By leveraging lab-based testing, mobile operators, chipset vendors and device manufacturers can make use of a cost effective, simulated network environment to test both component interoperability and overall service quality. In adopting this approach, operators are no longer reliant on live network testing and costly, time consuming device field trials. Moreover, lab based testing can ensure that VoLTE operates entirely as expected, and in turn, this will help to advance VoLTE devices to market and ultimately safeguard customer satisfaction, by ensuring first class levels of service.
Ultimately, VoLTE’s long term success will be determined by its ability to deliver carrier grade voice services across an all-IP network, and on the latest LTE devices. However, a level of cooperation within the mobile industry is vital if VoLTE is to emerge as a commercial viability. The speed at which LTE can be deployed and its level of service quality are all inextricably linked to the evolution of testing; as well as the desire amongst operators to consolidate services on LTE and eventually migrate all of their subscribers to LTE, freeing up the spectrum that  is currently taken up by legacy technology.

Source: http://www.telecoms.com/72771/volte-%E2%80%93-4g%E2%80%99s-next-big-test/

When the Amount of Internet Based Mobile Messages Equals SMS

Tyntec, a mobile interaction specialist, today released the results of a study conducted in association with GigaOM Research, naming 2013 as the year IP-based mobile messaging will equal the popularity and ubiquity of SMS. The research shows that nearly 10 trillion SMS and IP mobile messages will be sent in 2013, predicting parity for the first time. This follows a year of significant adoption in consumer-based Internet mobile messaging, driven in part by the global uptake of OTT (over the top) technologies such as WhatsApp and Facebook Chat.

The research, which can be downloaded here, shows that this trend is set to continue, with the number of IP-based messaging subscribers already surpassing SMS user numbers in 2012, and 1.8 billion users sending 15 trillion messages per year by 2016.

As users continue to migrate to lower cost messaging services for person-to-person (P2P) communication, they are forced to switch between IP-based messaging and SMS due to the lack of interoperability and inconsistent delivery associated with IP-based messaging. The report also shows that despite the popularity of newer IP-based messaging services, SMS will continue to grow by 5 percent CAGR until 2016. This growth is due in part to Internet companies, social networks and enterprises continuing to take advantage of SMS's ubiquity, interoperability and global reach for Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging. For example, Google relies on SMS in emerging markets to deliver emails and verify authentication. Similarly, mobile money applications use SMS to post transactions and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, also use SMS to publish updates.

The report concludes that the growth of IP-based messaging and SMS solutions have ultimately reached an impasse and will be forced to converge as end-users continue to demand more streamlined messaging. GigaOm Research suggests that virtual phone numbers are a promising solution to the fragmentation, as these provide a universal identifier to seamlessly converge the two technologies.

Virtual phone numbers offer interoperability to IP-based messaging services enabling users to transmit and receive messages regardless of the delivery mechanism. For example, a WhatsApp user would traditionally have to close the app and send a message via SMS to a non-WhatsApp user. By utilizing virtual phone numbers, messages would be sent seamlessly between devices without the user having to worry about choosing the appropriate delivery technology (e.g. SMS, WhatsApp, iMessage) and consumers would benefit from a smoother and more satisfying user experience. Similarly, carriers can take advantage of the shifting market by actively promoting virtual phone numbers to OTT players. This would both enable and promote seamless global communication while providing carriers with an entry point to the OTT / cloud telephony market. This convergence of messaging technologies allows OTT players and carriers to leverage each other's strengths in the value chain, providing enhanced scalability, delivery and innovative interfaces for end users while mobile operators gain additional international, rich SMS and voice traffic revenues from the OTT and web 2.0 markets.

"The rapid uptake and flexibility of IP technology and the reliability and ubiquity of SMS messaging will keep these technologies both competitive and complimentary," said Peter Crocker, GigaOm Research analyst, founder and principal analyst at Smith's Point Analytics. "However, the advent of IP and new players is also creating fragmentation which is bad news for operators, Internet companies and users alike. Converged messaging through virtual phone numbers seems to be a natural way to address this problem because they provide a unique identity to enable interoperability and global reach for all parties."

"While IP-based messaging services such as WhatsApp are grabbing all the headlines because of their growth, it's important to remember that they share the same core purpose of SMS, convenient and reliable end-user communication," said Thorsten Trapp, Co-founder and CTO of tyntec. "By integrating the IP and mobile SMS world, companies can drive revenues and increase demographic and geographic reach quickly and simply. This is why virtual numbers will be so important in 2013 and beyond."

Source:  http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/new-research-shows-2013-as-year-when-amount-internet-based-mobile-messages-equals-sms-1748618.htm

Tablets, smartphones to fuel doubling of mobile marketing revenues

The explosion of tablet and smartphone use has spurred the migration of e-commerce to m-commerce, particularly in North America and Western Europe.

Retailers are predicted to spend $55 billion annually on mobile marketing by 2015, double the amount expected this year, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

In addition, couponing apps have become an increasingly popular way to distribute and store coupons, the report noted. In addition, mobile devices are being integrated into in-store retail strategies through augmented reality and near field communications.

 

Self-service BI/Analytics removes barriers between business users and their data, but it's harder to implement than it looks. Download a research report from the BeyeNetwork to learn the secrets of self-service success.

At the same time, many retailers have not optimized their sites for mobile browsing, registration or payment.

"If retailers truly want to maximize the mobile monetization opportunity, then optimization is critical. If you are using mobile advertising for consumer acquisition, you need to push users to a site with which they can comfortably interact; retailers that fail to respond to consumer demand will fall behind," commented report author Windsor Holden.

Holden advised brands to integrate their marketing campaigns across mobile social networking sites such as Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Foursquare and to limit mobile ad frequency, and to prevent overexposure.
In a report released earlier this month, Gartner predicted that mobile ad revenue would reach $24.5 billion in 2016, creating opportunities for mobile app developers and platform providers, as well as specialty agencies, ad networks and communications service providers.

Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner, agreed with Holden that tablets and smartphones are fueling the mobile advertising market "in more and more geographies as an increasing population of users spends an increasing share of its time with these devices."

It's time for mobile app developers and platform providers to tap into the opportunities being created by mobile advertising, whether delivered through the Internet or in the store through NFC.

Source: http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/tablets-smartphones-fuel-doubling-mobile-marketing-revenues/2013-01-23?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

The end of an era for SMS as IP-based messaging goes from strength to strength

The challenge for operators is to create a strong user experience and give subscribers little reason to go elsewhere.

SMS generated extraordinary profits for many years, but now looks unsustainable as smartphone penetration increases and a range of IP-based alternatives become available. Speculation concerning the fate of mobile operators' 'cash cow' is increasing. In Analysys Mason's recent report, Operator and OTT voice and messaging services in Western Europe: forecasts and analysis 2012–2017, we provide our outlook for the messaging market, for both legacy SMS and for emerging IP-based alternatives.

A large and increasing proportion of mobile users are adopting alternative messaging services, whether cross-platform messaging applications such as WhatsApp Messenger, or platform-specific services such as Apple's iMessage or RIM's BlackBerry Messenger. Usage within closed user groups is typically free of charge or for a low annual subscription fee, so the pricing of these services is clearly attractive in comparison with operator-provided SMS. Users are also attracted to added features such as presence. The greatest impact has been in countries where the SMS market is weak. According to our latest survey data, 63% of smartphone owners in Spain used alternatives at October 2012.1  Anecdotally, penetration in the Netherlands is at a similar level.

The ready availability of low-cost alternatives together with the prevalence of large, flat-rate SMS bundles means that messaging revenue for operators in most Western European countries will no longer increase. The SMS market in Western Europe is in decline: at a regional level, revenue has been falling since the fourth quarter of 2011. We believe that retail messaging revenue peaked in 2011 (see Figure 1) and will decline rapidly in most Western European countries thereafter. We are usually reluctant to forecast inflection points around the base year, in this case 2011. In the case of messaging services, we believe that this is well-founded.

Figure 1: Messaging revenue by type and its share of total mobile revenue, Western Europe, 2009–2017 [Source: Analysys Mason, 2013]

Overall, we expect messaging revenue to decline by 39% between 2011 and 2017. In Spain, which has the highest prices and the lowest volumes, we expect the level of messaging revenue in 2017 to be barely a quarter of what it was in 2011. Traffic substitution will be faster than revenue substitution because operators will continue to allocate revenue from bundles to messaging, regardless of actual usage.

Operators are belatedly investing in their messaging services in an attempt to retain some competitiveness. They are responding to the increased availability of alternatives by offering their own IP-based messaging services and are adopting three main approaches.

• RCS/joyn is specified by the GSMA and is the industry's official response. The service is typically rolled out as a co-ordinated operator response with interoperability as a marketable feature. This approach is gaining momentum in countries where the SMS market is under strong pressure and the argument for self-cannibalisation is easier to make.
• 'Telco OTT' services are proprietary services offered by operators following an OTT model. Services are either developed in-house (often with the help of a specialist vendor) or offered using a white-label service. Many operators are using 'telco OTT' services to address specific market niches that are seen as vulnerable to substitution. Some of the major players are experimenting with both RCS/joyn and 'telco OTT' approaches.
• Partnership with a provider of alternative messaging services is an option for many operators. The brand strength of the partner is chiefly used to support the operator's data proposition rather than bolster the existing messaging service. This approach particularly appeals to smaller, disruptive players with less exposure in legacy revenue.

Self-cannibalisation is becoming acknowledged as the preferred strategy for most operators as they revamp their messaging services to compete in a data-centric mobile market. The challenge for operators is to create a strong user experience and give subscribers little reason to go elsewhere. Despite these efforts, non-operator-provided OTT messaging services will continue to grow strongly from 2012 to 2017. We expect service penetration of smartphones to increase to nearly 60% in Western Europe by 2017, whereas we expect operator-provided IP-based services to reach around 35% of smartphone users in the same period.

Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/press-releases/end-era-sms-ip-based-messaging-goes-strength-strength
 

The Telco Innovation Toolbox: Economic Models for Managing Disruption and Reinventing the Telco

The paper introduces novel economic thinking that is the result of over 2 years of research of ecosystem economics and telco disruption from VisionMobile in association with Ericsson.

The paper introduces ten economics and strategy frameworks that will help operators to accelerate their “digital” strategies, make the right innovation investments and avoid costly mistakes.


The topic of telco disruption brought upon by over-the-top (OTT) players is high on telecom industry agenda. However few realize that telcos are being disrupted because the basis of competition in mobile has fundamentally changed. It has changed from “reliability and scale of networks” to “choice and flexibility of services”, driven by the transition from “mobile telephony” to “mobile computing”.

The change is fundamental and irreversible.

The telecom industry is facing a conundrum today: providing undifferentiated voice, text and data services to smartphone users leads to a competition on price and diminishing margins. At the same time, staying in business requires that telcos keep up with ever-growing demand for data and continued investments in building wireless capacity. Investments in networks are still necessary, but they alone are no longer sufficient for profitable growth. What’s next?

Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen recently said: “I think, as a general rule, most of us are in markets that are booming. They are not in decline. Even the newspaper business is in a growth industry. It’s not in decline. It’s just their way of thinking about the industry that is in decline.”

The telecom industry too can greatly benefit from looking at familiar challenges from a new perspective. Telecom is a booming industry with ever-growing demand for mobile data and a rising number of subscribers. But the basis of competition in mobile has changed putting pressure on legacy business models. Building networks alone can no longer guarantee profitable growth for telecom operators. Competing head-on with asymmetric business models of OTT players won’t help either. Instead, seizing the full potential of this booming industry means leveraging mobile digital ecosystems to create meaningful differentiation, lock-in for core telco services and incremental revenues. This requires an understanding of ecosystem economics, development of new organisational capabilities and resetting the KPIs for “digital” initiatives.

The Telco Innovation Toolbox introduces ten important economic models and strategy frameworks that will help operators to make the right choices in their innovation investments and accelerate their efforts to reinvent telco business. We describe ecosystem economics in the context of telco business in chapters 1 to 4, discuss the impact of traditional financial tools and the need for new innovation processes and KPI in chapters 5 and 6, and finally suggest how to leverage ecosystems to the benefit of the telco business in chapters 7 to 10.

Download Report: http://www.visionmobile.com/product/telco-innovation-toolbox-report/

Source: http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2012/12/surviving-disruption-an-innovation-toolbox-for-reinventing-the-telco/

Mobile operators should slow down rollout of VoLTE

Ovum analyst Jeremy Green is advising mobile operators to slow down on the rollout of mobile VoIP over 4G LTE networks because there are still service and supply issues to work out, and no compelling services or revenue opportunities.

Green advised operators to focus on data services over their high-speed wireless networks in the short term. In the long term, VoLTE will provide network efficiency and costs savings, he added.

"While there are some questions about how to provide voice services during the interim period when the LTE network sits alongside legacy 3G and even 2G networks, there is general agreement that the ultimate destination is a solution based on the IP multimedia subsystem, which is now designated as VoLTE--'voice over LTE'," Green wrote.

Service parity issues, such as support for emergency calls and in-call handover between LTE and other networks, are holding operators back from deploying VoLTE. There is also an insufficient number of devices out there that support VoLTE and problems with device performance, such as battery drain.

"The service benefits of VoLTE also appear to be tenuous," Green wrote. "Even if RCS services were a sure-fire winner (and this is by no means an established certainty), their deployment is largely unrelated to LTE, as the few commercial deployments to date largely demonstrate. It is a similar situation with HD voice, which can be deployed on both LTE and non-LTE networks," he explained.

At the same time, factors that are driving operators toward early VoLTE deployment include network and spectrum efficiencies, eliminating the need for a separate voice network, improving call setup times and the offering new services, such as high-definition voice, simultaneous data usage and rich communication suite services.

Green advised operators to stay engaged with VoLTE, but not to rush into deployment. In the case of VoLTE, the early bird does not catch the worm, he added.

For more: http://ovum.com/2013/01/10/theres-no-harm-in-taking-a-slow-road-to-volte-deployment/

Source: http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/ovum-mobile-operators-should-slow-down-rollout-volte/2013-01-11

Moving Beyond Connectivity: Driving Business Value with SIP Trunking (WEBINAR)

Another good opportunity to stay up-date on VoIP/ IMS technology developments :)

On February 14, 2 pm ET / 11 am PT / 7 pm GMT

In this webcast, Acme Packet will examine the migration of enterprise communications to an all-IP infrastructure using SIP trunking and Enterprise Session Border controllers (E-SBCs) to enable next generation all-IP communications networks, providing access to a range of cloud-based communications.

Topics will include:

• Trends in enterprise communications - in Contact Centers and company-wide
• E-SBCs and their role in the enterprise communications infrastructure
• Unified Communications, BYOD, CEBP, and Business Automation

Who should attend?

• Enterprise IT staff involved in enterprise communications strategy
• Integrators serving the industry
• Service providers delivering SIP trunking and hosted business services to the enterprise

Featured Speaker:
Rob Popovic, Global Director of Enterprise Marketing, Acme Packet

Source/ Registration: https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/

Telco OTT and RCS - Presentations

The following presentations refer to Telco OTT and RCS market analysis and platforms:




Source #1: http://www.fiercetelecom.com/offer/acmepacket_ott
Source #2: http://www.fiercewireless.com/offer/acmepacket2012
 

Mobile broadband presents the largest opportunity for operator revenue growth

Global telecom operator revenues exceeded US$2tn in 2012, with 60 percent going to mobile operators, finds Ovum. While overall revenue growth is expected to be minimal, Ovum believes some segments will still have above-average growth and significant incremental revenues over the next five years at each level of the value chain.

In a new report*, the global analysts reveal that mobile broadband presents the single largest opportunity for telcos to claw back revenue, as forecasts show mobile broadband growing 19.2 percent annually and generating US$122.9bn in incremental revenue between 2013 and 2016. Other segments with double-digit revenue growth over the next five years include public cloud, enterprise Ethernet, IPTV, and managed/hosted IP voice.

"The recovery from the 2009 recession has been weak, and the ongoing global fiscal crisis continues to present a risk to the telecom industry," comments John Lively, chief forecaster at Ovum. "Over the next 3–4 years, both fixed and mobile operators will face the same fundamental challenge: to increase new sources of revenue fast enough to offset the decline in mature services."

In the consumer segment this will involve competing with new over-the-top players as well as traditional competitors. To meet this challenge, Ovum recommends adopting consumer-services marketing approaches.

For infrastructure vendors, increases in overall capital expenditures will be limited by low single-digit gains in service provider revenues. To grow revenues faster than the industry average, Ovum recommends that vendors position themselves in one or more high-potential product segments, such as converged packet optical, ROADMs, 40G/100G networking gear, carrier Wi-Fi, and network-related services.

Elsewhere, Ovum warns component makers to expect continued high volatility in market demand – higher highs and lower lows than their customers or end customers are experiencing. "This can be mitigated to some degree by forming close relationships with infrastructure vendors and jointly understanding the end customers' needs and plans," suggests Lively.

Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/press-releases/ovum-reveals-mobile-broadband-presents-largest-opportunity-operator-revenue

Facebook Adds Voice Messages, Tests VoIP Calls

After building out its Messenger app to focus on communications, Facebook is now focusing on voice calls and voice messages.

It’s the latest in Mark Zuckerberg’s “mobile first” push for Facebook, and one of a number of recent moves in mobile communications. While the Facebook status update is nice, the social network is looking to build a much broader set of tools for people to communicate.

Users of Facebook’s Messenger app for iOS and Android can now send voice messages, after an update Thursday. Users can tap the “+” button then hold the “record” button to record a message. Releasing the button immediately sends the message. Sliding your finger off the button cancels the message.

Facebook is also testing a new feature that enables free voice calls using the Messenger app–right now this only works in Canada and only on the iOS app. Using this new test, people can tap the “i” in the top right corner of the app and then tapp “Free Call.” This only works with the version of the app released today.

The free calling is just the latest news that shows Facebook’s much larger ambitions in mobile communications. The Facebook Messenger app is not just about sending a traditional Facebook message. You can now send a voice message. And in the future, if Facebook expands beyond the test phase, you could make a free call from the app.

Facebook also recently opened up its Messenger app to people who don’t even have a Facebook account–all the better to add new users quickly in emerging markets where Facebook is seeking to grow quickly and add SMS functionality. SMS is a major sector that many are going after, seeking to be the next generation of mobile communications. Facebook also recently launched Poke, a SnapChat competitor that lets users send photos, videos or text messages that disappear after several seconds.

Others such as Skype, now part of Microsoft, and Google Voice, offer voice calling functionality, as do a number of startups. And Apple’s iMessage includes the ability to convert voice to text messages.

But Facebook wants its users to communicate on Facebook, rather than other services. For Facebook, the communications piece is crucial, as Facebook has always been a place for people to keep in touch via photos or status updates. Naturally then, Facebook would want people to be able to click to send a text message or phone call without leaving to a rival service.

Related (@2013-01-17):

• http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/01/facebook-buries-video-calling-partner-skype-with-a-tiny-app-update/
• http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=478858&G=5&C=1&page=1

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/03/facebook-adds-voice-messages-tests-voip-calls/

LTE Strategies (Presentation Informa TM)

Wait 20 seconds for the pub. and it will start automatically

RCS-e Joyn: Deployment World Map

The blogger issues a question that another engineers are thinking:

Where is Joyn really deployed and in what way can I benchmark approaches and business models ?

What is Joyn? Joyn is an end user communication tool with instant messaging, video calling, file transfer and fully integrated in the device and network subscription.

Current live network deployed Joyn (client application):

• US: metroPCS
• Spain: Movistar (Telefonica), Vodafone and Orange
• Germany: Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile)
• Mexico: Telcel (America Móvil)
• South Korea: SK Telecom, KT and LG U+

Also, Zain(with mobile operations across eight markets in the Middle East and North Africa) is launching pilot Rich Communications Services (RCS) in its home market of Kuwait too.

Planned deployment at: AT&T, Bell Mobility, Bharti Airtel, KPN, KT, LGU+, Orascom Telecom, Rogers Communications, SFR, Telecom Italia, TeliaSonera, Telus and Verizon.

Also in the this matter, accreditation by GSMA is an ongoing process that can be reviewed at http://www.gsma.com/rcs/interoperability-testing/accreditation/. The metrics are defined but not all the client applications are accredited.

Promotional Video - Vodafone Joyn: http://www.youtube.com/joyn@vdf
Resources - GSMA Joyn: http://www.gsma.com/rcs/resources 

Last update@2013-03-11

Sources:

• http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/joyn-sms-version-20-will-it-help-carriers-stem-ott-tide/2012-03-29
• http://www.gsma.com/rcs/ 
• http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/deutsche-telekom-indefinitely-delays-joyn-launch-date-admits-technical-issu/2013-01-30  
• http://www.telcel.com/apps/web/
• http://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2013/03/07/zain-first-in-middle-east-to-join-joyn/

RCS-e Joyn: SK Telecom rolls out Joyn

South Korean operator expects subscribers to pay to use some features once offer period expires at end of May.

 

SK Telecom has become the latest operator to launch Joyn and one of the first that plans to charge customers to use some of its features. The operator announced last week that the service, which it is calling joyn.T, will be free to use for those who take out one of its flat-rate 3G or LTE contracts between now and the end of May.

Customers who sign up after then will have to pay certain fees according to their price plan.

For example, one of Joyn's marquee features, video-sharing, will cost 0.33 Korean won per second on a flat-rate tariff and 0.6 won on a usage-based tariff, meaning five minutes of video-sharing will cost 99 won ($0.9), or 180 won ($0.17) depending on the type of contract. Messages will be charged at 20 won ($0.01) per message, while file-sharing will be accounted for on the customer's data allowance.
These fees may well be very low; nevertheless, SK Telecom's strategy is markedly different from other operators that have launched Joyn, such as Telefonica in Spain and Deutsche Telekom in Germany, which offer it at no extra charge in a bid to tempt their customers away from alternative over-the-top (OTT) services.

Going forward, SK Telecom plans to add new, albeit unspecified features to joyn.T, which will be launched under the name joyn.T 2.0 later in 2013. The company said it will also launch a joyn.T client for PCs this year. "We plan to add more features to shape joyn.T into an attractive communication channel that can be enjoyed by customers irrespective of their carrier or device," said Wi Eui-Seok, SVP and head of product planning at SK Telecom.

SK Telecom's deployment of Joyn – the consumer-facing brand of the GSMA's Rich Communication Suite (RCS) – comes nearly six months after it rolled out high-definition voice over LTE (VoLTE). At the time, SK Telecom talked up the potential of linking the two services.

Source: http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=478562