Opinions article

Delivering mobile content – emerging options for mobile operators

By Simon Sherrington

There is not a major mobile operator in the world that is not looking for ways to drive down the cost of delivering mobile data traffic, and at the same time trying to work out the best ways to maximise revenue from that same data.

These mobile operators are being wooed by a broad range of equipment, software and service providers, all with very different approaches to mobile content management and monetisation:

Siri and natural language voice control: an important step-change in user-device interface design?

By Jon Tee

‘I heard you talking, and thought there was some one with you.’
‘Oh,’ he replied, with a smile, ‘I was only entering my diary.’
‘Your diary?’ I asked him in surprise.
‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘I keep it in this.’ As he spoke he laid his hand on the phonograph. I felt quite excited over it, and blurted out: -
‘Why, this beats even shorthand! May I hear it say something?’
‘Certainly,’ he replied with alacrity, and stood up to put it in train for speaking. Then he paused, and a troubled look overspread his face... ‘You see, I do not know how to pick out any particular part of the diary... Although I have kept the diary for months past, it never once struck me how I was going to find any particular part of it in case I wanted to look it up?’
‘Then, Dr Seward, you had better let me copy it out for you on my typewriter.’

Conversation between Mina Harker and Dr. Seward in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

Ecosystems and emotions – how to succeed with superfast broadband

By Jon Tee

What can suppliers of superfast fixed broadband services learn from success in the smartphone market? Ofcom’s recently published International Communications Market Report 2011 contains some striking indicators in relation to the UK market that might be a cause of some concern to fixed network operators trying to sell very high-speed (‘superfast’, >25Mbit/s) fixed broadband connections.

The IPX market: where it's going and what the potential is

By Jon Tee

IPX networks are interconnected, private (i.e. off the public Internet), secure, managed IP networks providing guaranteed quality of service within and across interconnected networks by class of service supported by SLAs and with options for end-to-end cascading payments between suppliers and with transparent pricing.

Carrier billing helps mobile operators to grab more value from online content

By Danny Dicks

The value of online content (including apps) purchased and consumed on mobile devices is large and growing, yet mobile operators have found it difficult to capture this value: their attempts to be the provider of content have been unsuccessful in comparison with third-party content aggregators and app stores. But the relationship the operator has with the customer,and the simplicity for the customer of having charges for content and apps added to a mobile phone bill, have meant that mobile operators have a chance to be a more significant part of the value chain than in the past.

Carriers to compete more aggressively in content delivery: CDNs hope this will grow the market

By Jon Tee

As network-connected devices capable of consuming rich content – smartphones, tablets as well as traditional laptop and desktop computers – have proliferated, content producers have sought to capitalize on the increasingly powerful content-consumption capabilities of these end-user devices and the widespread increased availability and adoption of high-speed broadband access networks to distribute their content over these broadband networks.

Telco billing and cloud services: a multi-faceted business challenge

The increase in adoption of cloud-based services for computing infrastructure, software platforms and business applications in many enterprises across multiple sectors has spurred telcos and their suppliers to look for new revenue opportunities. Telecom network operators are well positioned to deliver all kinds of cloud services, and many are already doing so – particularly in North America and Europe. They may also be able to act as trusted providers of management for multiple clouds – or “cloud service brokers”.

TV white spaces: a spectrum opportunity starts to open up

TV white spaces (TVWS) – the unused portions of spectrum in the TV bands, such as the guard bands between broadcasting channels and channels freed up by the transition from analogue to digital TV broadcasting – are starting to be opened up on a licence-free basis in the USA and the UK, promising numerous possibilities for new services and business models.

Home energy management needs a cross-disciplinary approach

By Catherine Viola

In recent years, numerous trials have taken place of diverse approaches aimed at reducing electricity consumption in the residential sector. The table below summarises the outcome of a selection of these.

Refarming the 1800MHz band: the mobile broadband sweet-spot?

by Catherine Viola

Operators have so far launched LTE mainly in new spectrum, especially in the 2.6 GHz band in Europe and Asia or the digital dividend 700 MHz band in the US. There is nothing surprising in rolling out the latest technology in newly acquired
spectrum, and operators can also typically obtain the wide bandwidths of 10 MHz or above that are needed for optimal LTE performance.

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