Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: July 14, 2009
I don’t often write about tech issues, but so much is being written about the Google Chrome OS announcement I thought I’d weigh in.
On the surface, the announcement of a Google operating system seems to many like a shot at rival Microsoft, an attack at MS’s core business. But those who have been following Google’s moves know that it’s more than that — it’s an (expected) evolution in Google’s long-term strategy.
Google is moving everything online, and I really believe this is the future of computing. The desktop model of computing — the Microsoft era — is coming to an end. It’ll take a few years, but it will happen.
The Old Model
For years, the OS has used the desktop analogy, with folders and files, all stored in a big file cabinet (your hard drive). And applications such as Word have run from the hard drive.
What this has meant is that, in order to insure against computer crashes (which are eventually inevitable), you’ve had to back up your files to a remote disk (another drive, a CD-ROM, etc.). It also has meant a headache when it comes to accessing your files and programs from multiple computers — you have to save and sync files all the time, and buy and install multiple copies of applications.
It’s also meant a lot of headaches when it comes to filing and finding your files, and sharing them with other people (this had to be done using floppy disks/CDs, or more recently, email attachments).
Finally, operating systems, trying to do everything, have become bloated and slow, taking up a lot of your computer’s processing power, memory and storage.
The New Model
Google’s model is based on connectivity to the Internet, a model that was unthinkable a decade ago and has only been really viable in the last few years as almost everyone has high-speed connections and wi-fi or mobile access.
Google has moved applications, and increasingly, our files, to the web (or cloud). It started with Gmail’s success — a fast, powerful online email app that beats desktop email apps hands down. It expanded with a suite of simple web apps: Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Reader, Picasa for photos, eventually YouTube for video, Blogger for writing for the web, and more.
These apps are lightweight but powerful. They aren’t as feature rich as desktop apps, but here’s what many critics don’t understand: in today’s (and tomorrow’s) computing world, they don’t have to be.
While the business world has long used Microsoft Word to create rich documents full of formatting and charts, the increasingly mobile world doesn’t care about any of that. We send emails and text messages and tweets and messages on Facebook and forums and other social media — with no formatting at all. We do blog posts that have bold and italics and links and photos and videos and not much more in terms of formatting text.
We don’t need feature-bloated Microsoft Word anymore. Nor Excel, with its 2 million features, nor PowerPoint (who likes to watch slides?). Sure, there are still some great desktop apps that people use, for photo and video editing and much more … but the majority of us don’t need those. We need to communicate simply and quickly, without hassle.
Web apps don’t match up with desktop apps … but that’s a good thing for most of us who use the new computing model.
Web apps are lightweight and fast. They store all your files online, so you don’t need to worry about syncing them or carrying around CDs or flash drives, or backing up. You can share with anyone you like, or everyone, with a click.
This is what the computing world is becoming, and will be for many years. Google has driven these changes, and when it announced the Chrome browser last year, that was an obvious move to make the browser handle web apps better.
The Chrome OS is an obvious move to make computers bypass the old model of desktop apps and files and folders, and go straight to the web, web apps, and online files. Chrome OS will be lightweight and fast (like the Chrome browser), it will feature web apps and not much else, and it will be perfectly aligned with how more and more of us are using the web — with mobility, speed, sharing, and connecting in mind.
Why Google Music is the Next Logical Step
If you read the Google Chrome OS announcement carefully, you’ll see an interesting item:
“[People] want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files.”
This obviously means Google OS will store all its files online — then people don’t need to worry about backing up the files, and if they lose their computer, nothing will really be lost.
And that makes sense, considering that Google has moved almost all your files online if you use its web apps: emails, photos (in Picasa), videos (in YouTube), documents (Google Docs & Spreadsheets), even pdfs now.
Almost all of your files.
The average user has one other type of file, though: mp3s. Sure, I know there are many other types of files, but I’m only concerned with what most people use computers for these days — email, online reading and social stuff, video, photos, music. And Google has not moved music online yet.
There are already sites that do this, but they’re not Google. So either Google will buy one of the online sites (like it did with YouTube and Blogger and Writely, which became Google Docs), or it will create its own.
Your mp3s will be stored online, and you’ll be able to play them from anywhere. This will complete Google’s goal of keeping all your files online.
Concerns: Connectivity and Privacy
There are two main concerns that people have when cloud computing or web apps are brought up, so we should talk about them briefly:
1. What if you’re not connected to the cloud? You might lose your Internet connection and lose access to your files. This is not a concern for most of us, as we’re almost always connected, more and more each year, especially with data plans on mobile devices (ala the iPhone). However, Google is already addressing this issue with Google Gears and HTML5 — you’ll be able to access your files and use web apps even when offline.
2. Do I really want Google to have all my files and info? This is a valid privacy concern, and I don’t have an answer. My personal feeling is that I don’t have any data that I’m incredibly worried about losing or that might become public. I highly doubt Google would be interested in browsing through my files, as they’re not very interesting. And if Google uses my data to serve up better ads … what do I care? I don’t look at their ads anyway.
However, I understand the privacy concern. It may turn out to be an important issue, or it might just be something we learn to live with, as we have with many other privacy issues (government having access to our financial data, Microsoft getting info from our computers, etc.).
Update: More info on Chrome.
—
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The toolkit launches in a couple of days, and until then there’s a pre-sale that drops the price from $67 to $49 (32% off).
Source: zenhabits
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: June 24, 2009
The implementation of a direct operator top-up strategy can bring double digit revenue gains and reduced costs, claims a study commissioned by electronic payments vendor, Vesta Corp. Given the size of the prepaid market in Western Europe, this can equate to hundreds of millions of Euros annually, adds the report. Direct operator top-up channels include all operator-managed top-up channels that rely on electronic transactions outside a retail environment, such as the operator’s website, IVR and handset applications.
The research indicates the significant advantages that direct operator prepaid top-up has over other existing top-up methods, including improved performance metrics, lower costs and improved CRM capabilities. In addition, direct handset top-up has the ability to remove the fragmentation and complexity impacting the take up of m-payment services and drive new revenue streams for operators.
The research has been conducted by independent telecom consultancy Northstream and is based on the feedback of wireless operators across Western Europe.
Chris Parsons, CMO of Vesta commented, “When prepaid direct top-up is executed properly it not only offers an opportunity to increase the ARPU of prepaid but also provides the foundation for operators to seamlessly offer a wide range of profitable mobile payment services from the same platform. Aside from prepaid debit reload, other services such as peer-to-peer transfer, international remittance and mobile commerce become far more readily accessible.”
According to the whitepaper, with overall growth in the prepaid market slowing, operators are looking at ways to reduce costs while increasing prepaid customer loyalty and revenues. Non-cash (credit/ debit card/ bank) payment penetration has grown significantly in Europe, and a staggering 91% of operators interviewed intend to drive top-up transactions from costly commission-based retail infrastructures to “virtual” non-cash top-up (NCTU) channels.
Aligned with this view, not only are operators exploring alternatives to retail top-up but 100% of those interviewed want to shift their non-cash payment mechanisms from a bank centric model to a direct operator model. Given this finding, it is somewhat surprising that less than 20% of the NCTU offerings analyzed in the research included handset-based top-up applications, even though top-up frequency using handset applications can be up to 80% higher than other channels. This increased frequency also results in an ARPU increase of 23%.
The main imperatives stated for adopting a direct top-up approach were avoiding zero credit service interruptions, increasing top-up frequency and improving customer experience with anytime, anywhere top-up availability via handsets, the web and IVR. However, the research also indicated the ability of direct top-up to enhance CRM capabilities, enabling operators to identify high value customers and cross-sell while customizing and optimizing user experience. Indeed, over 90% of operators interviewed highlighted the need to strengthen the way that top-up integrates with their online services and other operator-controlled channels.
Chris Parsons continued, “By adopting a direct top-up approach, operators will improve their prepaid performance indicators by reducing costs, improving prepaid customer loyalty and increasing revenues. Operators are struggling to build-out direct top-up channels given the reduction in their IT budgets but those that address these challenges early will reap significant benefits in the prepaid market and create a strong platform from which to launch further mobile financial services.”
Source: cellular news
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: June 14, 2009
Adobe Flash may still be excluded from the iPhone, but the software company is determined to provide a unifying standard for the rest of the smartphone world, and will launch its key handset product by year-end.
The company currently offers Flash Lite for phones, but Apple and others have complained that this is insufficiently powerful for the high-end mobile web experience.
Adobe has since formed the Open Screen Project to support its Flash and AIR technologies as key systems that could bridge PCs and handsets, and is now set to release actual products.
CTO Kevin Lynch, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said that Adobe has made deals with chip designers and phonemakers and is offering incentives to developers to write programs the new version of the software.
Adobe will launch a trial version of Flash that works with most of the key smartphone OSs – including Palm WebOS, Google Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile – this year, though iPhone and BlackBerry remain off the roadmap for now.
“We need to have Apple’s agreement before we can do it,” Lynch said.
As promised for the past year, the new release will bring fully featured PC Flash to smartphones and Flash Lite will be phased out. Nokia is a key ally, and joined with Adobe in February to create a $10 million fund for developers who build mobile apps for Flash.
Source: telecomasia.net
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: June 14, 2009
The two epic cellular battles that have dominated headlines for months continue.
In the first instance, France Telecom says it won’t make a bigger offer to buy Osracom’s stake in ECMS, Egypt’s largest mobile operator, the Financial Times reports.
France Telecom and Orascom have been squabbling over the French operator’s attempts own ECMS (and its 21 million subscribers) outright since 2007 – they assumed joint ownership in 2001 – amid many claims and counter-claims of failure meet agreed or arbitrated conditions.
The two companies control ECMS via Mobinil, a company that owns 51% of the Egyptian mobile operator. France Telecom owns 71.25% of Mobinil and Orascom the rest. Orascom also owns 20% of ECMS directly.
In March, an arbitration court, sponsored by the International Chamber of Commerce, ruled that Orascom should sell its stake to France Telecom for €517 million ($725 million).
But, as the FT explains, the Egyptian securities regulator has in effect blocked the transaction by saying it take place in tandem with a tender offer to minority shareholders at ECMS, which is listed on the Cairo stock exchange.
Egypt’s Capital Market Authority has rejected two offers by France Telecom to the minority shareholders on the grounds they were too low. The most recent offer was worth €1.5 billion ($2.1 billion).
France Telecom has repeated its previous stance that it is ready for as long a legal battle as necessary to secure its rights (and control of ECMS) and continues to accuse the Egyptian authorities of overriding international law and consequently damaging future investments into Egypt.
In the second epic struggle, Russian bailiffs have agreed to hold off on the sale of Telenor’s shares in VimpleCom until the court in the West Siberian city of Tyumen has reached a decision, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Reuters reports that the court has adjourned the case until 30 September.
Telenor yesterday said any deal with Alfa Group to resolve the dispute over jointly-owned mobile ventures in Russia and Ukraine must wait until the Russian court case brought by Farimex is solved.
Telenor maintains that Farimex is an off-the-shelf, British Virgin Islands company with less than a 1% stake in Alpha, that is being used by Alfa Group for unfounded gain. Alfa Group is owned by an oligarchy of Russian billionaires.
Telenor and Alfa have joint ownership of VimpelCom and also Kyivstar in Ukraine. Farimex is suing Telenor for delaying the progress of Kyivstar in Ukraine.
In this complex, protracted case, the bailiffs had frozen the shares as collateral against the $1.7 billion damages the court awarded against Telenor by the Siberian court in favor of Farimex.
Under the country’s law, the bailiffs could have sold the shares before Telenor had the chance to appeal.
Telenor has prevailed on the Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, to see that justice is done and the principles of international law upheld in the interests of encouraging investors into Russia.
Source: telecomasia.net
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: June 13, 2009
Research released today by mobile device management company Mformation highlights that the mobile phone is becoming increasingly central to consumer lifestyles. A significant amount of information is now stored on mobile devices. 94% of users surveyed store telephone numbers while 65% also store address and other contact information on their phones; 83% have digital photos, 51% have videos, 48% have calendar information and 40% have music downloads. With ever-increasing phone and network capabilities, this trend of using the phone to store valuable and sensitive data from every aspect of life is set to continue.
One consequence of using the phone as a method for creating and storing data and information is that people must now worry about this material if the phone is lost or stolen — 82% of people fear that if their phones were lost or stolen, someone would use the information stored on them for fraudulent means. 90% of those questioned are worried about the loss of their personal data if a mobile device were to go missing, with 72% admitting that the personal information stored on their devices would be difficult to replace. In addition, 40% of respondents even said that losing a mobile would be worse than losing their wallet.
“Mobile phones are becoming more and more essential to user lifestyles,” commented Matt Bancroft, Vice President, Mformation. “People can access the Internet and store significant amounts of valuable personal information and other content on their mobile devices. With new advances in mobile technology arriving every day, this trend will only increase the role of the mobile device in peoples’ lives by providing us with increasing freedom to store, manage, send, and receive information. Mobile operators need to make sure that users are confident that their devices are secure, the data on those devices is protected, and device content can be backed up and recovered if a phone is lost or stolen. Such a high level of dependency on mobile phones today means that operators need capabilities to help minimize risk and maximize trust,” continued Bancroft.
Because mobile phones are being used for such a wide range of activities, when a device is lost, it can prove to be devastating for the user. 91% of people questioned in the UK and US said they would be “devastated” if they lost their mobile phones. For this reason, it is unacceptable that three-quarters of the people interviewed said that it would take a day or more to get a new phone fully up and running with all their personal data after a loss or theft. In fact, 61% of people said that this should take 2 hours or less.
“Operators need to step up to the mark to make sure that their customers are getting the service they expect in terms of security, data recovery and phone setup,” said Bancroft. “As people continue to increase their reliance on mobile phones for everyday actions, operators have to make sure that they are ready to support this increased commitment by the user. More extensive use of the device is great, but the mobile operators need to underpin this activity by offering capabilities to protect and manage users’ data if things go wrong.”
The research was undertaken by independent research house Coleman Parkes, which asked 4,000 people in the UK and US about problems related to mobile usage.
Source: Total Telecom
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: June 13, 2009
This year could well be make or break for small-cap telecommunications companies, many of which are vulnerable as larger rivals step into their traditional areas of trade in an attempt to increase market share in uncertain economic times, analysts say.
Amid the gloom, however, some companies have shown a resilience to the downturn by growing market share through regional business and providing a series of niche services.
These companies have managed to create partnership arrangements with “tier one” blue-chip peers – big companies which typically own a physical infrastructure or network – carving out areas of resistance where other smaller companies may be struggling.
Tier one companies are now starting to move back into servicing the small and medium enterprise (SME) market through a process called “aggregated outsourcing.” This involves going to smaller telco companies and asking them to badge themselves as either BT Group PLC or Cable & Wireless, for example, to undertake SME work, with the tier one company taking a cut of the profits while outsourcing the work.
“BT won’t be the only blue chip eyeing the SME market, Cable & Wireless is also another contender after it cut its customer base from 30,000 to about 3,000 SMEs back in 2006,” said Andrew Darley, a telecommunications analyst at institutional broker and corporate adviser FinnCap.
One company which has shown resilience in the current market is AT Communications Group PLC. The company specializes in maintenance, and designing and installing Internet protocol technology which allows for communication of data across a packet-switched internetworks alongside standard telco operations.
“We’re seeing a reverse in the current trend, with more business from tier one companies,” said Chief Operating Officer Scott Kean.”If you look at Cable & Wireless, for instance, they’re clearly moving out of that [SME] space, and passing it on to suppliers like us.”
“C&W handed SME contracts over to us on condition that we don’t shift them onto another carrier. They still keep the revenue, albeit they reduce their margin,” he said.
“By doing this, tier one companies can shave off staff costs through structured redundancy,” Kean said.
“AT Comms has done well in a credit crunch, as people defer spending on hardware,” said Philip Carse, a telecommunications analyst at Teleq Consulting.
“By being lower down on the scale in terms of the sort of customer they are catering for, much of their business comes from the maintenance type, support contracts, areas which will show resilience as customers defer spending on new technology,” Carse said.
Kean said, however, smaller telco dealers and resellers will start to lose more ground to the tier one companies if they don’t secure partnership deals.
“Dealers and resellers are, and will continue to suffer for the moment. We’ll probably see more small companies looking to sell their business on or consolidate, getting out before their revenues are further reduced.”
Analysts also cautioned that, while AT Comms will benefit from aggregated outsourcing, it is still likely to suffer from recent cuts by blue chips in contractors and staff.”BT cut its contractor costs by 30% this year and you’d expect AT Comms to have a rather hard time because BT is their major client,” Darley said.
Analysts also said mid-size telecommunications firms could stand to benefit in the current market after a series of profit warnings in recent months from the likes of Alternative Networks PLC, Maintel Holdings PLC, and KCOM Group PLC, a Hull based telecommunications and internet provider, pushed such companies into significant restructuring.
“With these companies cutting so many costs, plotting how their positioning will look when the market recovers becomes difficult. But, if you look at KCOM, it’s a highly cash-generative business with a flexibility you may not get from a tier one,” said FinnCap’s Darley.
KCOM’s Chief Financial Officer Paul Simpson said that a company like KCOM will always have the advantage of bespoke products and services, something that larger peers can’t always offer “The larger you are, the more difficult it is to bespoke a product every time somebody rings you, but our size gives us a flexibility that you may not find with the larger players,” Simpson said.
It would be futile for a company like KCOM to buy up smaller networks to try and compete with tier one companies, he said.”We are a long way behind BT and C&W in terms of the size of our network; in this respect we’re much better off utilizing other people’s networks in combination with our own to drive our offering.”
The restructuring of the company’s operations has revolved around getting its Integration and Managed Services unit back to profitability. The company always had a very cash-generative business on one side of the fence and that “there would be no point in buying a smaller network unless it gave extra reach, and was underpinned by cost savings,” Simpson said.
Redstone PLC, a smaller communications services provider, is a unique investment case. The company operates very closely within the limit of its banking covenants and could stand to benefit from consolidation more than other smaller players.
The company migrated up the value chain to focus on much larger contracts to facilitate growth. While it has a strong sales pipeline, it faces cash flow problems as clients delay on contracts, according to FinnCap’s Darley.
Of the smaller telcos, Redstone is trapped in a financial straightjacket where it can’t generate sufficient cash to consider making significant acquisitions, Carse said.
This, therefore, pushes it toward one of two possible outcomes: either forge further partnerships with tier one players or look at the benefits of consolidation.
Carse said a merger or acquisition was still conceivable with Redstone, the shares of which have lost 85% of their value in the past 12 months, although it was more likely to be initiated by a tier one player who possessed “greater financial fire power.”
“The risks in the interim are significant, as are the rewards in the long run. However, there is no incentive to own the stock until those rewards are closer,” Darley said.
When asked Redstone didn’t wish to provide comment.
Analysts also cautioned about the dangers of “catching a falling knife.”"If we’ve hit the bottom of the macro trend, then consolidation holds fewer perception risks,” said Darley, referring to the benefits of consolidation in an environment which would typically limit organic growth.
While the current market is still very uncertain, analysts are confident that there are benefits awaiting some smaller companies.”Apocalypse phase one, is passing,” said Darley.
“Direct company action on the balance sheets through initial and far-reaching cost-saving measures has resulted in more partnership deals and bespoke services, which has allowed them to reinforce their areas of business,” he said.
“There’s a proliferation of smaller telco companies which serve the SME market better than a tier one company can offer…investors should still be braced for volatility but understand that there are some highly cash-generative businesses on in this market trading at very much knocked-down prices,” Carse said.
Source: Total Telecom
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: June 13, 2009
Quality of Service on IPTV networks, for both operators and their customers worldwide, can now be greatly improved thanks to the efforts of a dedicated team of experts at the Broadband Forum.
The approval and release of “Splitter Testing” Technical Report 127 (TR-127) creates – for the first time – the opportunity for network operators and independent test labs to carry out a system level test across four key IPTV network elements; the DSLAM, the CPE modem, the Central Office Splitter and the CPE Splitter. Testing splitters as part of a complete system assures the new TR-127 compliant splitters will prevent disturbance of the video signal by a telephone signal on the same line.
“Video signal interruption by on-hook, off-hook telephone usage has plagued Triple Play delivery since the concept first became reality,” explained Broadband Forum Chief Operating Officer Robin Mersh. “I’m absolutely delighted that after such a thorough effort by our Testing and Interoperability Working Group we are able to help the industry and its customers deal with this issue.”
The new TR-127 enables high quality delivery of triple play services by maximizing the interoperability of splitters and in-line filters with xDSL transceivers in an active, dynamic telephony environment, including the previously troublesome on-hook, off-hook, ringing, and ring trip events. TR-127 addresses VDSL2 technology as well as ADSL2/2plus, and relates to the previously issued Technical Report 100 (TR-100), which covered ADSL2/ADSL2plus Performance Test Plans.
The Broadband Forum sees TR-127 being used as a new reference criterion for the specifications of splitter equipment and testing worldwide. Among the drivers for this series of dynamic splitter tests were:
• Telephone ringing and answering (Ring trip) events had been proven to have an adverse effect on the quality of IPTV services.
• VDSL2 and ADSL2plus needed separate dynamic test procedures
• There was a need to analyze how splitters might affect the xDSL performance, in terms of achievable bitrate and margin
TR-127 addresses these issues with dynamic splitter test procedures. Splitters compliant with these requirements will offer significant reduction of IPTV pixelization on the TV screen image and will eliminate the “re-starting” of the DSL Modem. The result is that service providers and customers will soon be able to request TR-127 tested splitters, which deliver better picture quality and a more robust service.
TR-127 was announced by Robin Mersh, COO of the Broadband Forum, at this week’s FTTx Summit where the Broadband Forum was host organization.
Source: Total Telecom
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: May 28, 2009
With stronger competitive pressure from internet players, telecom operators are giving more attention to the option of transformation through unified operations support systems over the best of breed approach.
For Clarity International CEO Tony Kalcina, much of the push is from the web players’ successes in OSS and billing, which ironically take off from the achievements of the telcos themselves.
These new entrants like Google and Facebook come from a completely different mindset in terms of billing and OSS — they just plug the system in, it’s easier to charge for, and the speed is hours and days, not months and years like for telecom.
“What these players have done is that they focus on the real problems and not the symptoms,” Kalcina said. “They’ve gone top-down and, to a large extent, they are riding on the achievements of the telco industry in terms of the ability to make this happen.”
But with telcos’ legacy OSS and BSS platforms, how do they compete with the agile newcomers?
The internet players “are in their honeymoon period when there aren’t so many users and customers don’t pay for services so they are not as demanding,” Kalcina said. “The quality of delivery and the engineering put into the delivery of those services are probably not as high as they are in the telecom industry.”
Telcos, he said, have learned that although it is important to have processes, quality and predictability, it is far more important to understand the actual customers and deliver solutions to them.
“The telcos are talking about transformation – having personalized services, providing a better brand, benchmarking, all sorts of engaging with the hip nature of the end-users that they target,” Kalcina said. “At the same time, the focus is on streamlining and automating so they can become a reliable and dependable service delivery engine.”
More formalized approach
Many operators putting major resources behind this movement and have started to formalize the process, securing buying from their boards. This he said is because transformation takes time, as it is now a far more holistic than just a network or NGN transformation.
“They are transforming because the landscape is changing,” Kalcina said. “These telcos believe they will obviously be out of business if they don’t change the way they interact with and provide solutions to their customers.”
Still, telcos need to be careful of trying to ramp up quality in their entire structures, some of which may not be necessary in terms of what is being delivered to the customer.
Kalcina said the pitfall usually relates to engineers, who sometimes forget the real reason why telcos are doing what they are doing, so the tendency is to go for technical protection unnecessarily.
“For example, telcos have what are called geographic information systems that are very large, complex and expensive projects,” he explained. “One of the classic reasons why these projects fail, cost so much and take so long is that the engineering department wants to understand the network with 120 layers worth of detail.
“But when you stand back and analyze what the problem is , it’s neither an engineering nor a technical problem — it’s a challenge of automating the process of rolling out a network,” Kalcina added. “What you need to know can be summarized in half a dozen layers.”
Currently, it is the analysts who are painting a rosy picture for unified OSS as a desirable strategy. Kalcina said companies espoused the best-of-breed approach because the buying habits of the large telcos are driven by politics and tribal behavior of departments.
“Enterprise architecture is a new development that tends to lend itself for more enterprise-based approaches — solving the automation problem, self-service, and fulfillment and assurance,” he said. “So in the last couple of years you have analysts saying that the only way to solve the next-generation network transformation is through unified systems versus the fragmented best of breed.”
Operators, both those in developed and emerging markets, are in the same boat with regard to competition from internet players. But are they in the same page in how they regard the movement to unified OSS? Kalcina said they all see the need to move away from islands of operational management and service delivery technology to focus on a far more unified customer-centric and automated model.
“The industry has reacted, with players like Amdocs and Oracle moving toward creating a unified solution map,” he said. “They are moving toward the network, creating this engine that we can no longer call OSS but is effectively a converged service delivery factory that allows for customers to choose their own application suite that suits whatever they are trying to do.”
Even then, telcos in emerging markets like in Asia are more receptive to and understand the unified approach more than the developed markets give them credit. These companies – run by executives who want to do things in a bigger, better way — find ways to leapfrog the achievements of established telcos in the West.
This is one reason why Clarity has been Asia-centric, he noted, adding that telcos in Asia are far more interested in listening to new ways and they tend to be early adopters despite the difficulty of changing industry standards and trends.
“When we were starting, best of breed was definitely the way to do things and it was very hard to sell the [unified] story to the big players,” Kalcina said. “We found a lot more receptiveness in the new players, and then later with the incumbents that compete with the new players.”
Source: telecomasia.net
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: May 28, 2009
New research from Wireless Intelligence has revealed that the world’s largest mobile handset vendors are facing severe financial pressures as they continue to invest in their product portfolios during the market slowdown. We estimate that the average operating margin at the top five vendors – Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG – declined to around 4% in 1Q09, down from an average of 13% a year ago.
However, as our data shows, vendors have been unable to reduce expenditure in core areas such as R&D and marketing to offset shrinking margins. R&D expenses are estimated to have risen from 10% in 1Q08 to 12% in 1Q09, while marketing costs have risen from 9% to 10% over the same period. Margins in the sector have also been negatively affected by a high-level of product inventories, fierce price competition, and a decline in the Average Selling Price (ASP) of devices.
The figures highlight the predicament faced by handset vendors as they continue to invest in markets where demand is slowing and margins are shrinking. Vendors are looking to cut costs in R&D and marketing during 2009.
In the first quarter of the year, the top five vendors shipped 191 million devices worldwide compared to 236 million a year ago, a 19% decline. Many vendors – including market-leader Nokia – are predicting a further 10% decline in shipments during the current calendar year. Shipments for the current quarter are expected to be flat sequentially and down year-on-year.
Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola all reported an annual decline in revenues in 1Q09, while only Samsung and LG, the two South Korean vendors, reported positive revenue growth. As a consequence, profits have dropped significantly at most vendors.
Our analysis forecasts the following trends in the mobile devices market in 2009:
• cost savings to be made in R&D as vendors look to streamline their portfolio of devices;
• vendors to focus on smartphones to generate high-margins and lower-tier devices to generate high volumes and maintain market share. Less focus on devices in the mid-tier segment;
• vendors embracing content/media services, shifting the battle in the handset space from a pure hardware play to a software-centric strategy;
• an increase in joint-marketing campaigns with mobile operators and distributors;
• the outsourcing of lower-tier devices to Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) such as HTC, Compal, Foxconn and Asustek.
The current pressures we are seeing in the handset market have been caused mainly by the high level of maturity in developed markets, though the economic downturn has also played a part with regards to unfavourable currency fluctuations. Depending on the level of subsidies and how fast the bill-of-materials for smartphones declines, handset vendors will have to monitor price elasticity and device price erosion in 2009 carefully.
Vendors that do not have a compelling and competitively-priced portfolio of devices ready to ship in time for the crucial last quarter of the year are likely to be in for a rocky ride in 2010.
Source: telecomasia.net
Posted by: hadiuzzaman on: May 28, 2009
The principal performance benefit femtocells bring to LTE is to ensure more users receive peak data rates more of the time, especially inside buildings where the most mobile broadband data is consumed and where the service quality is lower than outside.
Femtocells achieve this by maximising spectrum re-use and by ensuring power, and therefore network capacity, is not wasted by trying to penetrate buildings.
Although most discussion to date of femtocells has focused on residential use, the technology is also applicable to enterprises, public spaces or ‘metrozones’ and hot-spots. In this way, femtocells are an important complement to the more traditional macrocell deployment.
There is also growing evidence that femtocells are essential to deliver further improvements in mobile network design, and in the case of LTE, to ensure more subscribers receive peak data rates. LTE is approaching the theoretical maximum information transfer rate (Shannon’s limit) and further improvements will only be possible by rolling out more, smaller cells.
In fact, an analysis of Cooper’s law – which holds that wireless capacity doubles every 30 months – shows that the dominant factor in improvements to date has been the use of smaller cells as opposed to other methods such as revised modulation techniques, better coding or the use of more frequencies.
Maximising spectrum efficiency
Femtocells also allow operators to make the best use of their LTE spectrum. An important quantity of new spectrum will be made available for LTE in the high frequency bands that do not penetrate buildings effectively but are ideal for femtocells.
Where LTE networks are deployed solely in the scarcer and more valuable sub-1Ghz bands, where in-building penetration is better, femtocells will still be required to provide the extra network capacity needed to deliver on the promise of high data rates for all subscribers.
Business case
Femtocells also allow operators to create a more compelling mobile broadband business case. Femtocells can lower considerably the delivery cost per bit through significant savings in cell site installation, maintenance and backhaul costs.
LTE can revolutionise mobile broadband – and femtocells can play a role in helping it to deliver its potential. By adopting femtocells operators can roll out a much better performing LTE network than they could with macro base stations alone and at a lower cost and with less risk. All these factors are crucial in the current uncertain economic environment.”
New services
Femtocells are also designed to power the kinds of next generation services that are expected to epitomise LTE. LTE femtocells will provide the best possible environment for downloading and streaming media from the internet or between devices in the home without loading the mobile network at all.
In the case of sharing media in the home, femtocells will not even require broadband backhaul and will therefore not be limited by throughput restrictions on the network thereby capitalising on the full peak rates of LTE. Additionally femtocells ‘know’ when a consumer is in the home thereby enabling presence-based applications that automatically trigger when a consumer enters, or leaves, the home.
New roll-out strategies
Operators can also use femtocells to lower the cost, and therefore the risk, of LTE rollout by adopting a different strategy to that employed in 2G and 3G networks.
Although traditional macro base stations will still be essential to provide widespread surface coverage, operators can use both indoor and outdoor femtocells from the outset to carry substantial amounts of data traffic thereby realising major savings on backhaul and other associated capacity costs.
Combining femtocells and macrocells in this way allows operators to build their LTE networks incrementally in line with demand and avoid the need to second guess user uptake.
Source: telecom asia
