O2 UK is launching its Tu Go app the operator said will enable its
users to make and receive calls, texts and voicemail via the Internet
using their existing telephone number.
The service, available on all Apple and Android devices, is free to
download for O2 contract customers, with the calls and texts taken from
their existing bundle.
The aim of Tu Go is to free customers from being locked to a single handset, O2 UK product manager Caroline Dundas told BBC News.
"Customers can now take their mobile number wherever they like, even away from their mobiles," she said.
O2 UK customers can be logged into the Tu Go service on up to five
devices at once, said the operator. Incoming calls will ring all
logged-in devices, including handsets using SIM cards associated with
different networks and Internet-enabled gadgets such as iPods, according
to BBC News.
Commenting on the launch of Tu Go, Ovum telco analyst Jeremy Green
said that the app is more than just another "me too" VoIP app by an
operator. "It delivers tangible differentiation for Telefónica and is a
lesson for its peers in integration with carrier telephony services."
"Only available to O2 UK's postpaid customers, it is a cloud-based
telephony service, allowing the user to register multiple devices and
make and receive calls and messages from all of these as if from their
telephone number. Any usage comes from the user's postpaid inclusive
bundle. TuGo can therefore be used regardless of physical location over
Wi-Fi using the user's home contract. This also makes it an FMC
solution, because it will work indoors on Wi-Fi at places where mobile
coverage is poor," said the Ovum analyst.
O2 UK CEO Ronan Dunne told Mobile News the operator was able to offer the service thanks to its acquisition of VoIP service provider Jajah in 2009.
The app is notable since a number of European operators have
complained of "over the top" (OTT) apps like Skype and WhatsApp cutting
into their voice and messaging revenues.
Showing posts with label OTT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OTT. Show all posts
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Friday, 1 March 2013
Viber CEO takes on carriers' over-the-top attack. Could this be the beginning of a "revolution" !?
Editor comment: The discussion around Joyn market presence/ evolution, OTT and the
competition between mobile operators has been on the TOP board. Could
these news be the beginning of a larger partnership !? Like Deutsche
Telekom and Spotify !? Should Joyn and OTT have the same level of QoS if
the a partnership is created !?
Over-the-top services like Skype voice calls or Viber messaging sap carrier revenues. But Talmon Marco said users are just going where the innovation happens.
Carriers love to bash companies like Skype and WhatsApp that provide services on top of their mobile networks at the Mobile World Congress trade show. But one thing was different this year: Viber Media founder and Chief Executive Talmon Marco entered the lion's den to defend the idea.
Viber's free messaging service, which competes directly with carriers' own high-profit services for text- and multimedia-messaging services, is a prime example of the despised over-the-top (OTT) approach. Marco showed no remorse for sapping telco revenues and argued that users are just moving to where the innovative, useful services are taking place.
"There's no difference between the SMS of 1993 and 2013," Marco said, whereas in the two years since its launch, Viber has added group messaging, delivery confirmation, indicators that the other person is typing, location sharing, and high-quality photos. "We delight our users with cool new features." He backed up his case with the example of Monaco, 90 percent of whose 35,000 population uses Viber -- even though SMS is free in the country.
Marco spoke immediately after two telco chief executives, Deutsche Telekom's Rene Obermann and KT's Suk-Chae Lee, told of their unhappiness with OTT services. Carriers are held back by regulations that don't apply to OTT providers, for example. Obermann described how OTT companies see their relationship to carriers: "You invest, we take the profit." He and his peers have been saying this for years at this show and others, but he thinks sooner or later something has to give.
"It's not sustainable that the network makes all the investments and others just get a free ride," he said.
Lee said OTT services are bleeding away the business of KT, the largest mobile operator in South Korea, because it must invest more and more into its infrastructure but it doesn't reap the rewards.
"In the last four years, KT revenue has stagnated, but capex [capital expenditure spending] has increased to $4 billion from $3 billion before," he said. "The builders of this cyberspace, the telcos, may have to watch the space be dominated by the giant Internet players or the OTTs."
That's a stark contrast to Viber's business. "Our whole infrastructure costs under $200,000 a month," Marco said. Marco suggested a path to reconciliation, though: partnership. He said he won't pay the telcos for free services, but he's willing to share revenue for paid services.
"We're definitely prepared to share revenues when we charge users," Marco said.
Already Viber pays a percentage of its revenue to the app stores that distribute his company's app, but a carrier could step in and do the distribution, too. "That's 30 percent of our future revenues up for grabs by carrier. Come and take it," Marco said. Obermann seemed open to the idea, pointing to a partnership Deutsche Telekom has with music-streaming service Spotify. "We have a revenue share," Obermann said. "Users love it, and we have growing number of subscribers." Lee sounded more skeptical. OTT companies, in the long run, hurt economies that are increasingly dependent on the Internet. "Nobody can stop OTT," he said. "The question is, if it creates an economic cost burden to society, then somebody must take the burden."
Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-57571275-78/viber-ceo-takes-on-carriers-over-the-top-attack/?goback=.gde_1890406_member_218231920
Over-the-top services like Skype voice calls or Viber messaging sap carrier revenues. But Talmon Marco said users are just going where the innovation happens.
Carriers love to bash companies like Skype and WhatsApp that provide services on top of their mobile networks at the Mobile World Congress trade show. But one thing was different this year: Viber Media founder and Chief Executive Talmon Marco entered the lion's den to defend the idea.
Viber's free messaging service, which competes directly with carriers' own high-profit services for text- and multimedia-messaging services, is a prime example of the despised over-the-top (OTT) approach. Marco showed no remorse for sapping telco revenues and argued that users are just moving to where the innovative, useful services are taking place.
"There's no difference between the SMS of 1993 and 2013," Marco said, whereas in the two years since its launch, Viber has added group messaging, delivery confirmation, indicators that the other person is typing, location sharing, and high-quality photos. "We delight our users with cool new features." He backed up his case with the example of Monaco, 90 percent of whose 35,000 population uses Viber -- even though SMS is free in the country.
Marco spoke immediately after two telco chief executives, Deutsche Telekom's Rene Obermann and KT's Suk-Chae Lee, told of their unhappiness with OTT services. Carriers are held back by regulations that don't apply to OTT providers, for example. Obermann described how OTT companies see their relationship to carriers: "You invest, we take the profit." He and his peers have been saying this for years at this show and others, but he thinks sooner or later something has to give.
"It's not sustainable that the network makes all the investments and others just get a free ride," he said.
Lee said OTT services are bleeding away the business of KT, the largest mobile operator in South Korea, because it must invest more and more into its infrastructure but it doesn't reap the rewards.
"In the last four years, KT revenue has stagnated, but capex [capital expenditure spending] has increased to $4 billion from $3 billion before," he said. "The builders of this cyberspace, the telcos, may have to watch the space be dominated by the giant Internet players or the OTTs."
That's a stark contrast to Viber's business. "Our whole infrastructure costs under $200,000 a month," Marco said. Marco suggested a path to reconciliation, though: partnership. He said he won't pay the telcos for free services, but he's willing to share revenue for paid services.
"We're definitely prepared to share revenues when we charge users," Marco said.
Already Viber pays a percentage of its revenue to the app stores that distribute his company's app, but a carrier could step in and do the distribution, too. "That's 30 percent of our future revenues up for grabs by carrier. Come and take it," Marco said. Obermann seemed open to the idea, pointing to a partnership Deutsche Telekom has with music-streaming service Spotify. "We have a revenue share," Obermann said. "Users love it, and we have growing number of subscribers." Lee sounded more skeptical. OTT companies, in the long run, hurt economies that are increasingly dependent on the Internet. "Nobody can stop OTT," he said. "The question is, if it creates an economic cost burden to society, then somebody must take the burden."
Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13970_7-57571275-78/viber-ceo-takes-on-carriers-over-the-top-attack/?goback=.gde_1890406_member_218231920
Facebook to Offer Discounted Mobile Messaging
On Sunday, Facebook unveiled partnerships with mobile operators around the world to provide free or discounted data access to Facebook messaging for their respective subscribers. Free or discounted data access will be available in the coming months on Messenger for Android, Messenger for iOS and Facebook for Every Phone, which is now optimized for chat.
The social networking giant said that this promotion will be available from more than 18 operators in 14 countries. Operators committed to special pricing for Facebook messaging include TMN in Portugal, Three in Ireland, Airtel and Reliance in India, Vivacom in Bulgaria, Backcell in Azerbaydzhan, Indosat, Smartfren, AXIS and XL Axiata in Indonesia, SMART in Philippines, DiGi in Malaysia, DTAC in Thailand, Viva in Bahrain, STC in Saudi Arabia, Oi in Brazil, Etisalat in Egypt, and Tre in Italy.
According to NBCNews.com, when the deal kicks in, messaging via Facebook’s messenger service may turn out to be cheaper than texting in some countries. The report suggests that the feature will work on the Messenger app for Android or iPhone and the every phone service for basic phones.
Facebook said that messaging on Facebook lets people connect with friends and contacts on-the- go, regardless of what device they are using. Study indicates that three out of every four people on Facebook send a message on the platform each month, making messaging one of the most popular activities on Facebook.
Research data shows that today Facebook messaging and chat can be accessed from more than 6,000 mobile phones via Facebook Messenger, Facebook for iOS and Android, Facebook for Every Phone, m.facebook.com and across other devices with Facebook integration.
Source: http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/2013/02/28/328813-facebook-offer-discounted-mobile-messaging.htm
Thursday, 21 February 2013
SKT and one million causes causes noises (from Telecoms.com)
Almost twelve months after Vodafone Spain became
the first mobile operator to officially launch Joyn, South Korea’s SK
Telecom has announced a fairly impressive one million users for its
Joyn.T service, just 50 days after it was launched in December 2012.
SKT is the first of the seven operators that have launched Joyn services in four countries in the past twelve months to have announced user numbers, though it has not stated what proportion of the one million Joyn.T subscribers are active users. The operator made the Joyn.T Android application available for download from its T Store, but mobile subscribers can also download it from Google Play, from where the application had between 10,000-50,000 downloads in the 30 days to February 19, 2012.
The announcement is timely for the GSM Association given that it comes the week before the industry body’s Mobile World Congress, where Rich Communications Suite (RCS), and Joyn in particular, will likely be a key focus.
The SKT numbers also give Joyn a much-needed boost, coming as it does within weeks of Deutsche Telekom being forced to issue a clarification about its delayed launch of Joyn services in Germany. DT said that an error in translation resulted in the reporting of an “indefinite delay” in the launch of Joyn in Germany, which was originally scheduled for December 2012, when in fact the operator had simply declined to state a new launch date. Informa understands that DT is currently conducting a sizeable user trial of the live service on its network, and that a launch is imminent.
According to SKT, the GSMA said that the success of its Joyn.T launch will likely accelerate the commercialization of Joyn globally. Joyn services are already available from mobile operators in Spain (Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange), Germany (Vodafone) and the US (MetroPCS), as well as from SKT rivals LG Uplus and KT Freetel.
The GSMA stated at Informa’s Rich Communications event in Berlin in November that 30 operators in 18 countries had committed to launching Joyn services, not all of which were opcos of operators that have already launched services. However, by Informa’s own reckoning, just ten operators (and their subsidiaries) are planning launches on 24 networks in an additional 16 countries, not including Spain, Germany, the US and South Korea, where services have already launched.
Most recently, it’s been reported that Singapore’s Starhub is working with partner network Vodafone on a Joyn launch, scheduled for 2H13. It is likely that Starhub’s Joyn service will make use of Vodafone’s hosted RCS capability, with Vodafone recently stating that it is already helping seven partner and competitor networks deploy RCS-based services, with another seven networks and a mobile operator with a group of 13 networks in the pipeline.
But it remains to be seen whether those mobile operators who are doubtful about RCS services will be sufficiently convinced by the positive subscriber response to SKT’s launch of Joyn.T, especially since SKT’s success appears to be an isolated case. None of the other mobile operators that have launched Joyn services have disclosed user numbers, and Google Play data would tend to suggest that mobile subscribers have not rushed to download their respective Joyn applications. For example, both the Joyn by Vodafone and the Joyn by MetroPCS Android applications had between 100,000-500,000 downloads in the 30 days to February 19. That is an improvement since January 25, however, when the respective applications had between 50,000-100,000 downloads and between 10,000-50,000 downloads.
Meanwhile, the uptake of Joyn.T is particularly notable given that South Korea is also home to KakaoTalk, one of the first over-the-top messaging applications, which launched in March 2010 and which at last count had 75 million downloads. Indeed, it was the uptake of KakaoTalk (among others) that led to the demise of SKT’s Mobile Messenger service, which was launched in August 2006, and which then developed into an interoperable “pre-RCS” service in March 2009, alongside KT Freetel’s Show Messenger and LG Telecom’s Oz Messenger.
SKT initially offered Mobile Messenger for free, and the number of subscribers to the service grew from 216,000 in May 2009 to 1.2 million by June 2010, while monthly traffic increased from 13.5 million messages to 243 million messages during the same period. However, once SKT started charging for Mobile Messenger, user numbers and traffic fell dramatically, as subscribers migrated to the ‘free’ applications provided by KakaoTalk and others.
It is possible that a proportion of KakaoTalk users may switch back to Joyn.T. But KakaoTalk has in the meantime created additional revenue-generating consumer-facing services, such as branded emoticons (stickers) and games, and has also launched a digital publishing platform targeted at enabling brands and content providers to provide services and content to KakaoTalk users. In so doing, KakaoTalk has taken steps to differentiate itself from competitive plays (such as Joyn.T) in a bid to ensure it remains a relevant and preferred service for its users, and it is generating revenues from these services.
By contrast, it appears that SKT has accepted that initially, at least, Joyn.T will not be a directly revenue-generating service, and the operator has even extended the availability of Joyn.T as an unlimited, “free-for-life” service to smartphone users on flat-rate data plans; previously Joyn.T had been available for free to SKT’s 3G All-in-One and LTE subscribers on flat-rate data plans. Data usage associated with Joyn.T messaging will also be free, including messages sent from Joyn.T devices to non-Joyn.T devices (smart-phones and feature-phones), which will be delivered as SMSes.
The operator is also offering its Joyn.T customers the ability to exchange content, sticker and emoticons via the rich messaging capability, but it has not disclosed whether these will be additional revenue-generating services.
SKT is looking ahead, however, and plans to link Joyn.T to its HD Voice VolTE service, and to open up its Joyn.T APIs to small-to-medium enterprises. The latter strategy should help SKT to generate additional revenues, as SMEs tap into the operator’s infrastructure in order to be able to offer Joyn.T-based applications and services such as games, social networking and mobile commerce.
At present, Joyn.T appears to be more of a customer retention strategy for SKT. Certainly, the operator is playing to its strengths in terms of its existing billing relationships with its mobile subscribers, and consequently its ability to be able to bundle access to Joyn.T with its mobile data plans.
But it remains to be seen whether offering Joyn.T for free is going to be enough to tempt SKT subscribers away from KakaoTalk, which has in the intervening years developed its offering beyond simply ‘free’ messaging, made its application available on multiple device OSes (Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Bada, WindowsPhone), and built up a substantial user base.
Source: http://www.telecoms.com/106422/one-million-users-for-skt-joyn-but-is-%E2%80%98free%E2%80%99-enough-to-tempt-subs-away-from-kakaotalk/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=one-million-users-for-skt-joyn-but-is-%25e2%2580%2598free%25e2%2580%2599-enough-to-tempt-subs-away-from-kakaotalk
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
SK Telecom's Joyn service reaches 1million users
Operator enables Joyn subscribers to send instant messages to feature phone owners.
SK Telecom claimed on Monday that its joyn.T service has become the first RCS offering to surpass the 1 million subscriber mark.
The operator launched Joyn – the consumer-facing brand of the GSMA's Rich Communication Suite (RCS) – under the joyn.T brand in late December 2012. Since then it has tweaked the service so that data fees incurred from sending and receiving instant messages are not deducted from an end user's data allowance – a similar strategy that has been adopted by Joyn operators in Europe.
In addition, SK Telecom has also enabled subscribers to send Joyn messages to phones that do not have Joyn installed, which includes feature phones that are not compatible with the service. Any instant messages sent to a non-Joyn phone appear in the recipient's SMS inbox.
"SK Telecom aims to integrate all means of mobile communication into joyn.T to make it the most attractive choice for customers seeking an accurate and enriched communication service," said Wi Eui-Seok, EVP and head of product planning at SK Telecom, in a statement.
It will start by integrating joyn.T with its high-definition (HD) voice over LTE (VoLTE) service, which will become a standard feature on all phones sold by SK Telecom from March.
SK Telecom said it will also make its joyn.T APIs available to third parties in a bid to foster an ecosystem of entertainment, m-commerce and ICT services around its RCS offer.
Related:
- SK Telecom rolls out Joyn:http://telecomsrev.blogspot.pt/2013/01/rcs-e-joyn-sk-telecom-rolls-out-joyn.html
- RCS-e Joyn: Deployment world map:http://telecomsrev.blogspot.pt/2013/01/rcs-e-joyn-deployment-world-map.html
- Korea "joyns" the club (theartofmessaging blog): http://theartofmessaging.com/2013/01/17/korea-joyns-the-club/
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Acme Packet and CounterPath Partner to Give Operators the Solution to the Internet OTT Threat
Acme Packet, the leader in session delivery networks, and CounterPath, a leading developer of award-winning desktop, tablet and mobile VoIP software products and solutions, today announced a joint solution based on CounterPath's market-leading Bria softphone and Acme Packet's market-leading Net-Net session border controller (SBC). The solution is targeted at service providers looking to extend service footprint and increase subscriber base by tapping into the growing demand for "over-the-top" (OTT) services that leverage the Internet for real-time voice and video communications.
News Highlights:
- The joint solution is the first to leverage Acme Packet's implementation of an emerging standard known as Tunneled Service Control Function (TSCF), which delivers an infrastructure-based alternative for real-time, over-the-top (OTT) communications.
- CounterPath's Bria mobile edition, a SIP-based softphone
for Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, as well as Google Android, now
integrates tunneling innovations from Acme Packet that enable increased
secure connectivity, enhanced firewall traversal, and interoperability
with Acme Packet's SBCs.
- The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the
standards organization that oversees the development of IP Multimedia
Subsystem (IMS), is currently working to standardize the TSCF function.
- Acme Packet and CounterPath designed this solution for
service providers looking to provide secure voice, video, IM, presence,
and SMS to mobile apps -- with higher levels of quality and reliability
than current solutions.
- The joint solution helps customers extend the reach of
their services by allowing tunneled sessions to traverse network
borders, even in the presence of strict firewalls.
- With Acme Packet's patent-pending tunnel redundancy, the
solution improves media quality under adverse network conditions and
the Internet, where packet loss is common. Both signaling and media are
replicated to ensure the highest possible quality of experience.
- The solution also features CounterPath's Client
Configuration Server, which is used by service providers to deploy and
provision the CounterPath mobile app.
- Secure VoIP and video communications for mobile applications on iPhone, Android, and Windows devices
- Maximum service reach with strict firewall traversal
- High voice quality and surmount packet loss for off-net or OTT VoIP services
- Call continuity across Wi-Fi and mobile networks
- Open and standards driven tunneling technology for both signaling and media
- Service provider-grade IP communications and security leveraging hardware assisted encryption and tunneling technologies
- Protection against malicious attacks and non-malicious overloads for OTT services
- Support for standard codecs, regardless of signaling or media type
- "This partnership with Acme Packet only enhances our
Telco-OTT offering to service providers with a high-quality, real-time
solution that guarantees secure calls in even the strictest network
environments. As a result, we believe this joint solution will provide a
better experience than what Skype and other OTT players currently
offer," said Todd Carothers, Executive Vice President of Marketing and
Products, CounterPath. "This solution demonstrates our ongoing
commitment to innovation as we continue to provide operators with the
technology to beat Internet OTT offerings."
- "In order to compete in the emerging telecommunications
industry, traditional telephony providers must learn to embrace Internet
philosophies and deliver new and differentiated services via a
Telco-OTT model," said Dean Bubley, founder, Disruptive Analysis. "Acme
Packet and CounterPath's joint solution enables service providers to
strengthen their OTT service portfolio by improving quality and
security."
- "Traditional service providers are increasingly
concerned with OTT providers taking subscribers away from their
business," said Pat MeLampy, chief technology officer, Acme Packet.
"This joint solution enables service providers to compete directly with
other OTT offerings and keep customers on their networks. By choosing
CounterPath, an industry leading VoIP technology, and Acme Packet, the
market leader in SBCs, our customers can deliver all the benefits of OTT
services, offer security and reliability, as well as simply
interoperate with pre-existing services."
- Acme Packet and CounterPath will be demonstrating the joint solution at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, offering select attendees the opportunity to "test drive" the solution through a service offered exclusively during the event.
- Acme Packet at Mobile World Congress
- Acme Packet and OTT Communications
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Report: Minimizing the OTT threat
The growing threat from over-the-top providers such as Netflix and
YouTube has wireless operators on the defensive. Consumers are
increasingly watching video content on their smartphones and tablets,
rather than their TVs, and many are using services such as Netflix,
YouTube and Hulu to access that content.
According to Nielsen's most recent cross-platform report, the amount of time Americans spent watching video via traditional TV rose less than 1 percent year-over-year as of third quarter 2012. Yet time spent watching video via the Internet increased 37 percent, while minutes spent by mobile subscribers watching video on a mobile phone rose 25 percent during the one-year period.
Of course, the big dilemma facing operators is that these services eat up valuable bandwidth on the network, which cuts into their bottom line. But there are alternatives. Some operators are deploying platforms and products that promise to make OTT content better and easier for consumers to access and will help operators monetize these content offerings.
Rich Communications Services or RCS is one solution operators are deploying in an attempt to circumvent the OTT threat. MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) is the first U.S. operator to commercially launch RCS, under the GSMA's joyn brand. According to MetroPCS, the service is humming along just fine despite the fact that Deutsche Telekom is said to be experiencing technical difficulties in Germany. DT has indefinitely delayed launching joyn there.
The jury is still out on whether the GSMA's RCS/joyn initiative will be successful. Although the trade group maintains that the service is gaining traction with 19 vendors offering RCS on a hosted basis others say that the RCS effort is too little, too late and doesn't solve all the challenges presented by OTT providers.
FierceWireless' latest ebook, "Minimizing the OTT Threat," takes an in-depth look at the threat from OTT providers, and examines how operators are making progress in delivering content to their customers.
Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/minimizing-ott-threat/2013-02-05
According to Nielsen's most recent cross-platform report, the amount of time Americans spent watching video via traditional TV rose less than 1 percent year-over-year as of third quarter 2012. Yet time spent watching video via the Internet increased 37 percent, while minutes spent by mobile subscribers watching video on a mobile phone rose 25 percent during the one-year period.
Of course, the big dilemma facing operators is that these services eat up valuable bandwidth on the network, which cuts into their bottom line. But there are alternatives. Some operators are deploying platforms and products that promise to make OTT content better and easier for consumers to access and will help operators monetize these content offerings.
Rich Communications Services or RCS is one solution operators are deploying in an attempt to circumvent the OTT threat. MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) is the first U.S. operator to commercially launch RCS, under the GSMA's joyn brand. According to MetroPCS, the service is humming along just fine despite the fact that Deutsche Telekom is said to be experiencing technical difficulties in Germany. DT has indefinitely delayed launching joyn there.
The jury is still out on whether the GSMA's RCS/joyn initiative will be successful. Although the trade group maintains that the service is gaining traction with 19 vendors offering RCS on a hosted basis others say that the RCS effort is too little, too late and doesn't solve all the challenges presented by OTT providers.
FierceWireless' latest ebook, "Minimizing the OTT Threat," takes an in-depth look at the threat from OTT providers, and examines how operators are making progress in delivering content to their customers.
Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/minimizing-ott-threat/2013-02-05
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Deutsche Telekom indefinitely delays Joyn launch date, admits to technical issues
Deutsche Telekom (DT) is indefinitely delaying the commercial launch of its Joyn RCS service after admitting that implementing the technology is taking much longer than originally expected.
The company had initially confirmed Oct. 1, 2012, as a launch date for Joyn services, but this then slipped to December and has now been delayed further due to complex integration issues, according to Teltarif.de.
Incorporating the Joyn software into DT's handset portfolio is a lengthy process that requires thorough testing, DT spokesman Dirk Turning told Wirtschafts Woche. "Our goal is, of course, to move as quickly as possible to bring Joyn to market," he said.
The problems appear to be focused on the Joyn messenger service and its lack of stability, the German website reported.
While the aim is to launch Joyn on Android-based handsets, DT is worried about the current fragmentation of the Google smartphone platform and ensuring that its Joyn services will work with other German operators and those elsewhere.
Vodafone Germany launched its Joyn service in August at the IFA event in Berlin--albeit in beta format on the Android platform, but has given no indication when an iPhone version might become available. Telefónica's O2 Germany has said it is committed to launching Joyn in the future, while E-Plus has given no sign regarding its intent.
Separately, WhatsApp, a major over-the-top messaging and social messaging rival to Joyn, has been criticised for breaching privacy rules following a joint investigation by Dutch and Canadian regulators, according to a BBC report.
Investigators said concerns centred on the messaging app asking smartphone users to enable access to their address book once they had downloaded the WhatsApp software. The privacy issue arose when the app transferred users' address book details to the WhatsApp servers, and failed to delete those belonging to people who had not signed up to the service.
"This practice contravenes Dutch and Canadian privacy law, which holds that information may only be retained for so long as it is required for the fulfilment of an identified purpose," the regulators said, according to the BBC.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority told the BBC it could take punitive action if U.S.-based WhatsApp does not change its software.
MetroPCS says joyn launch proceeding smoothly despite DT's troubles
MetroPCS said its deployment of Rich Communication Services under the GSMA's joyn brand is humming along just fine. The comments are notable considering the technical difficulties Deutsche Telekom is experiencing in Germany that have forced the carrier to indefinitely delay launching joyn there.
MetroPCS, the only U.S. carrier so far to have launched joyn, said all of its LTE handsets--including the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Admire 4G, ZTE Avid and LG Spirit--now support joyn via a downloadable client available in Google's Play storefront.
MetroPCS spokesman Drew Crowell told FierceWireless that the company's plans for joyn remain unchanged, and that the carrier hopes to sell phones with joyn built in by the middle of this year. "We are working with handset OEMs to build-in joyn as a fully integrated feature, without the need for a download," he said.
Sunday, 27 January 2013
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)
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.
Thursday, 24 January 2013
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
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
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
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.
Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/press-releases/end-era-sms-ip-based-messaging-goes-strength-strength
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.
Source: http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/press-releases/end-era-sms-ip-based-messaging-goes-strength-strength
Monday, 14 January 2013
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/
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
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
Source #1: http://www.fiercetelecom.com/offer/acmepacket_ott
Source #2: http://www.fiercewireless.com/offer/acmepacket2012
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
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):
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/03/facebook-adds-voice-messages-tests-voip-calls/
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/
Sunday, 30 December 2012
VoIP and IP Messaging (Report Informa T&M)
VoIP and IP messaging: Operator strategies to combat the threat from OTT players
Blogger notes: This is an overview of a complete report from Informa Telecoms and Media but it's useful for defining if you need to buy it
One of the key attractions for consumers with regards to mobile VoIP and IP messaging applications is the misconception that they enable ‘free’ voice and/or messaging among their community of users; mobile users will still need to purchase a smart-phone and a mobile data plan in order to use the services.
That the services are ‘free’ however, is not the mobile operators’ only problem. Consumers currently use OTT services because they are free, but the risk for mobile operators is that in the future, consumers use OTT services because they are better than the operators’ own services – eventually rendering the mobile operator invisible.
Today’s OTT players are only having a small impact on mobile operators’ voice and messaging revenues, because the relative user base is small. But as the penetration of smart-phones and mobile broadband grows, so too will the penetration of the services provided by the OTT companies, potentially resulting in a corresponding decline in operators’ voice and messaging traffic.
Mobile operators are pursuing five key strategies in order to protect their revenues from voice and messaging: do nothing, fight, neutralize, partner or emulate. Only three of these strategies are future-proof, according to Informa’s research.
This report provides a detailed analysis of the OTT IP communications market, including an evaluation of the threat that OTT IP communications represents to mobile operators, market enablers and inhibitors, operators’ strategies for OTT communications and the outlook for OTT IP-based messaging for operators and OTT providers. The report also features seven case studies on OTT IP or messaging communications providers, including Viber Media and WhatsApp.
To view a free extract of this report: http://mail.informatm.com/files/amf_informa_plc/project_1150/Mobile_VoIP_and_IP_Messaging_new_extract_-_9th_Feb_2012.pdf
Source: https://commerce.informatm.com/reports/main/messaging-over-ip.html
Blogger notes: This is an overview of a complete report from Informa Telecoms and Media but it's useful for defining if you need to buy it
One of the key attractions for consumers with regards to mobile VoIP and IP messaging applications is the misconception that they enable ‘free’ voice and/or messaging among their community of users; mobile users will still need to purchase a smart-phone and a mobile data plan in order to use the services.
That the services are ‘free’ however, is not the mobile operators’ only problem. Consumers currently use OTT services because they are free, but the risk for mobile operators is that in the future, consumers use OTT services because they are better than the operators’ own services – eventually rendering the mobile operator invisible.
Today’s OTT players are only having a small impact on mobile operators’ voice and messaging revenues, because the relative user base is small. But as the penetration of smart-phones and mobile broadband grows, so too will the penetration of the services provided by the OTT companies, potentially resulting in a corresponding decline in operators’ voice and messaging traffic.
Mobile operators are pursuing five key strategies in order to protect their revenues from voice and messaging: do nothing, fight, neutralize, partner or emulate. Only three of these strategies are future-proof, according to Informa’s research.
This report provides a detailed analysis of the OTT IP communications market, including an evaluation of the threat that OTT IP communications represents to mobile operators, market enablers and inhibitors, operators’ strategies for OTT communications and the outlook for OTT IP-based messaging for operators and OTT providers. The report also features seven case studies on OTT IP or messaging communications providers, including Viber Media and WhatsApp.
To view a free extract of this report: http://mail.informatm.com/files/amf_informa_plc/project_1150/Mobile_VoIP_and_IP_Messaging_new_extract_-_9th_Feb_2012.pdf
Source: https://commerce.informatm.com/reports/main/messaging-over-ip.html
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
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/
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