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

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

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

LTE Strategies (Presentation Informa TM)

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

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

LTE Opportunities and Challenges in Asia - 2013

LTE global growth is forecasted to be led by Asia Pacific with India and China as major drivers. In this whitepaper, a snapshot of the likely changes Long Term Evolution will bring to Asia wireless communication operators and the mobile internet service providers. It compares the differences between LTE and WiMAX, as well as outlook of the LTE network adoption worldwide via the growth of 3G subscriber base from now, until 2013.

Other key takeaways included in this whitepaper are forecasts of 3G subscribers by region, worldwide LTE adoption data, mobile usage behaviour of several Asian countries, as well as the key challenges and opportunities of LTE adoption.

Source: http://4g-portal.com/4g-business-readiness-lte-opportunities-and-challenges-in-asia-whitepaper
 

2013 Telecoms Predictions (Informa T&M)

Analyst group Informa Telecoms & Media has revealed its Top Ten trends for 2013 for the telecoms and media sectors. Five of the predictions relate directly to telecoms operators and the other five cover the TV, digital media and OTT communications sector.

“We reckon that 2013 is going to be another tough year for the telecoms industry with a continued emphasis on cost control,” said Mark Newman, Chief Research Officer at Informa. “For operators, the migration to a data-centric business and revenue model will continue apace. And we see risks for those operators that do not invest properly in building wide-area networks that can deliver high-quality data services”.
“When it comes to new services, there will be a continued usage migration to smartphones and tablets. But both established and new players are trying to figure out how best to monetize mobile usage. Don’t be surprised to see some of the disruptors being disrupted by new technologies and business models in 2013”.

1. Wifi will become a victim of its own success
There will be a shift in operator sentiment away from public wifi as it becomes evident that the growing availability of free-to-end-user wifi devalues the mobile-broadband business model. Mobile operators will respond by articulating the value of their cellular networks better, but others not affected by this trend will double down on their public wifi investments to continue to propel the deployment and monetization of wifi.

2. Facebook goes all in on mobile
Facebook is having a tough time translating its popularity on mobile devices into revenues. Although its most recent financial results at last showed some improvement in mobile advertising revenues, we do not believe that this alone will be enough to sustain and grow its mobile business. There are three new monetization strategies currently available to Facebook: 1) develop new premium services to sell to its existing customers; 2) take a share of revenues from third-party content providers that develop services on its platform; or 3) expand into the device or device software business. We believe that the first two are Facebook’s preferred options and that billing and marketing / distribution relationships with operators, particularly in emerging markets, could bring tangible benefits. With regards to the devices business, we expect Facebook to emerge as a strong backer of the new Mozilla mobile operating system which is expected to challenge Android in the low-cost smartphone device sector.

3. What’s up with WhatsApp
The hype bubble around WhatsApp and other OTT messaging services will continue to expand in 2013, especially driven by frequent acquisition rumors, but the emergence of early anecdotal evidence that some consumer segments are starting to migrate their attention and usage to alternative services, both old and new, will start to dampen expectations and highlight the fickle and fragmented nature of consumer behavior.

4. Digital services: Show us the money
Investors will demand a clear path to revenue from investments into digital services before operators begin to feel any share-price benefit from initiatives. PR-friendly they may be, but demands and expectations from shareholders will grow that they are also friendly to the bottom line. It will become apparent to many operators that material revenue streams that can shift the dial of group-level revenues will be very hard to come by.

5. Content providers continue to spend on infrastructure
Google, Netflix et al will continue to invest heavily in extending their infrastructure closer to users in 2013. Informa recommends that operators consider these proposals carefully and recognize where they are likely to gain more from reduced costs and increased network efficiency than lose out in terms of uncertain revenues from so-called two-sided business models.

6.Subsidies under the microscope, but not necessarily for the right reason
Handset-financing models established themselves in Europe in 2012 and will continue to spread globally in 2013. But a reduction in subsidies and changes to traditional ways of retailing devices will come at a cost to operators. Physical and online retailers, such as Amazon, as well as device-platform owners, such as Apple or Google, will accelerate their own initiatives to disrupt traditional device distribution models. Every slip in the share of devices sold through operator channels will serve to further erode the balance of power between operators and internet and platform owners at the negotiating table.

7. Shared network, shared pain?
The logic of network-sharing will increasingly be questioned by the industry given the core strategic importance of a differentiated network platform. In Europe, especially, we expect more operators to forsake dividends and free cash-flow in order to ramp up investments into network infrastructure in the hope of establishing a competitive advantage built upon network quality of experience. However, despite this reversal of attitude by some, network-sharing and operator consolidation will sweep through emerging markets, especially in Africa.

8. Voice over LTE: Only fools rush in
Boosted by a lack of any negative customer feedback about interim voice for LTE solutions (such as falling back to circuit-switched 2G and 3G networks), more operators will join Verizon Wireless and EE in pushing out their timelines for the commercial deployment of VoLTE. A business case that looks to be based solely on spectrum efficiency will struggle to gain enough executive support to justify a rushed investment plan.

9. APIs: The new currency of the digital economy
APIs will become the leading currency of the digital economy – speeding service activation, configuration, customer experience management and time to revenue. Whether directly monetized or not, APIs are the new “interconnect standard” among digital service stakeholders.

10. Netflix will have a breakout TV hit in 2013
In 2012, a previously niche channel player, AMC, owned the most popular show on US TV – “Breaking Bad”. In 2013, it will be the turn of an OTT provider to break through – perhaps with “House of Cards”. Pay-TV operators should respond by looking at how they might partner with Netflix, rather than seeing it only as a threat.

Source: http://www.telecoms.com/57911/top-10-trends-for-2013/

VoLTE tested on the live Swedish LTE network

Tele2 AB,  announced that Tele2 is the first operator in Europe to have tested voice over LTE (VoLTE) in the live Swedish Tele2 LTE network. The tests proved much better voice experience in the IP based LTE network compared to 2G and 3G networks.

The tests have been conducted in a fully end-to-end standards compliant manner using technology from Mavenir Systems and Nokia Siemens Networks implemented in the live LTE network in Sweden.

VoLTE technology improves voice quality significantly and enables much faster call setup times.
Joachim Horn, CTIO Tele2 AB, commented: “We have consciously built in support for VoLTE in the 4G network, covering almost the entire population of Sweden. The tests we have conducted have shown tremendous results in a multi-vendor environment. From a technical standpoint we could be ready to launch commercially within a year.”

VoLTE is the next generation technology for transporting voice traffic as an IP data stream in LTE. Today the LTE networks are solely used for data traffic whilst voice traffic is still handled in the 2G and 3G networks. By moving and converting the voice traffic to LTE data, the opportunities for a superior and seamless user experience of voice integrated in new LTE services and applications are increasing.

Joachim Horn continued: “Not only does VoLTE enable superior voice and data experience simultaneously for our customers, but the technology is also more cost efficient”.

Source: http://4g-portal.com/volte-tested-on-the-live-swedish-lte-network

2012 LTE Market Trends

Recently IDATE presented a study regarding LTE Market Trends/ Forecasts and Strategy.

Here is the link: IDATE - LTE 2012 MARKET TRENDS