TT: The Editor's Cut

BBWF

2007-09-28T16:03:00.000Z

After the summer lull there's so much going on now it's gone crazy. Where TT is concerned, a key event will be when our online team heads off to the Broadband World Forum in Berlin in a couple of weeks, so look out for the daily news service coming from the show.

Rainy Reading

2007-09-28T15:56:00.000Z

Verizon Business clearly does not subscribe to the saying, "If Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammed." The US-based enterprise services group held its annual media event in the Berkshire town of Reading this week, where former MCI had its European HQ. But the number of UK journalists attending the event dwindled down to the committed few (all from the trade press) on the day... next year probably best to stick to London really. Also, the corporate taxis are still holding up signs saying "MCI".

Egg in the face

2007-08-23T13:56:00.000Z

So, online financial services Web site Egg is down, to the frustration of thousands of savers and credit-card users. Reports say Egg is blaming it all on C&W, which apparently has been unable to find a solution yet to fix the server problem. And Egg is not the only one to be affected, it seems. Not good news for C&W, which really doesn't need this kind of bad publicity right now!

DVB-H

2007-07-17T17:35:00.000Z

So tomorrow the EC will issue a formal statement of intent on making DVB-H the preferred standard for mobile broadcast TV in Europe. It has even ruled in making the standard mandatory from 2008.

The potential ramifications of such a move make the mind boggle. What does it mean for all those other competing standards, for one thing? Will operators be allowed to use tdTV, for example?

Of course the spectrum conundrum is far from resolved and there is a sense of "too little, too late" on the part of the EU. We are already seeing the development of a fragmented mobile TV market as technologies such as DVB-H and mediaFLO have been delayed by the lack of available spectrum and DMB and DAB-IP have muscled in. The EC wants the 27 Member States to work together to develop an EU-wide approach to UHF spectrum that will be freed up after digital switchover. But this flies in the face of the so-called technology-neutrality approach the EU professes to adopt. Wonder what technology-neutral Ofcom will make of it all.

The "digital dividend" is extremely valuable spectrum that has been fought over by broadcasters, operators and many, many others in the past two years or so.

But clearly for mobile TV to take off a unified approach is very desirable. You can see the reasoning behind it - but the feeling is that this should have been done much, much earlier.

The Dragon - and Centrino Pro

2007-05-13T11:29:00.000Z

HP proudly launched one of its latest "laptops" at the event in Shanghai, dubbed "The Dragon". The term laptop has to be used advisedly here: this machine weighs in at 15 pounds and has a 20-inch acreen, and no one is going to be carrying this monster round. HP is positioning it as a desktop replacement - a moveable home entertainment system. But it's unlikely anyone will be running it off battery power or taking it on long-haul flights. The Dragon, also known as the HP Pavilion HDX, runs on Intel's new Centrino Pro (Santa Rosa) technology that also includes the draft specification for the 802.11n WiFi standard.

Apparently the "Santa Rosa" codename for the latest generation of the Centrino technology will be branded Centrino Pro for businesses and Centrino Duo for consumers. Centrino Pro will also include Active Management Technology (AMT) that enables IT staff to take control of a problem notebook, even when the PC's Windows operating system is down.

At this week's event in Shanghai Intel's head of marketing Sean Maloney said he expects WiMAX technology to be included in chipsets in 1-2 years.

Chinese walls

2007-05-13T11:23:00.000Z

Incredibly slow Internet access made life a lot more difficult for journalists needing to post stories while in China. All journalists at the event in Shanghai have commented on it and most have attributed it to the firewall that data has to go through. It's also been noted that some Web sites just aren't accessible from here - forget looking up anything on Wikipedia, for example! Interestingly, you can access conversapedia.com - the self-proclaimed "encyclopedia you can trust". Freedom of information is still a major issue here.

Some journalists, even though specially invited by HP for this event, were simply unable to get visas to come. We all had to submit forms with details of professional equipment, and some journalists were met at the airport and had their equipment confiscated - all this is of course was heard on the ground here at the HP event.

China's still got a long way to go on many levels, that much is clear.

It's a long way to go to Shanghai....

2007-05-09T08:05:00.000Z

...especially to be stood up by a BT executive!

Yes, here I am in Shanghai, venue for this year's Hewlett-Packard mobility summit. It's certainly a sign of how things are changing across the industry when HP starts getting more of the pure telecoms press involved in their major events. But it's interesting also that a lot of their presentations deal with the very basics of telecoms ("has everyone here heard of 3G?" I just heard one executive ask.) The presentation by the BT guy (I'll mention no names) was also extremely basic ("in the UK we have a service called Fusion").

Well, of course not everyone that follows HP's fortunes is also going to know a lot about telecoms and service providers. The PC manufacturer certainly launched a few products today - notebook computers supporting the draft 802.11n WiFi standard as well as existing WiFi standards. Six of the seven business notebooks presented (four of which yet to ship) at the event also had added capability for 3G broadband including both cdma2000 and UMTS. Overall the company unveiled 13 new notebooks models.

There were no new wireless iPaq launches, just more on the iPaq 510 that was already launched at 3GSM and supports UMA and also has a SIP client for business users. BT has already committed to offering that with Business Fusion.

The overall message is that HP wants to increase its mobility offering and it wants to play a role in FMC.

Femtocells

2007-04-10T21:27:00.000Z

New reports are coming out about femtocells and if some are to be believed these little base stations could rock the mobile world - this time in favour of the mobile operators. Of course we get such claims about new technology all the time. But analysts really seem intrigued at the possibilities of femtos. Many hurdles have yet to be overcome - eg not least to find out how operators would implement millions of these things into their networks, plus work out the best business case. But trials are quietly going on and the predictions are that we will see limited rollouts late this year or early next year. Personally I can't wait: I have terrible mobile reception where I live and would benefit hugely from having my own indoor base station. I'd even pay for it.

Qualcomm v Nokia

2007-04-10T21:23:00.000Z

So as it appeared Nokia had unilaterally decided on an amount to pay Qualcomm. Qualcomm is now seeking arbitration to force Nokia to recognise that it is continuing with its old agreement to pay the San Diego company royalties for using CDMA payments. This case ain't going to be resolved any time soon. Next move: Nokia.

Nokia and Qualcomm

2007-04-05T10:54:00.000Z

It's 9 April on Monday - for some it's just another Easter Monday but for Qualcomm and Nokia it's when their existing agreement on CDMA royalty payments comes to an end. Negotiations seem to have got messy, with Paul Jacobs saying at 3GSM that the parties were fairly far apart and looked unlikely to come to an agreement before the expiry date. Meanwhile Nokia said today that it has paid Qualcomm US$20 million for patent licences covering Q2 2007, but it's not clear if this sum has been agreed with Qualcomm or not. Nokia made it clear that the payment is not related to the old agreement. I haven't had any comments back from Qualcomm about this as yet...apparently once San Diego wakes up today there may be some reaction.

Nokia Siemens Networks

2007-04-05T10:33:00.000Z

So the coming together of Nokia Networks with the carrier networks business of Siemens finally came to pass on 1 April. The company has certainly kept up the momentum this week with various press announcements: after confirming the merger was now effective NSN also said it would support the MVNO operation of Blyk in the UK, and has formed a WiMAX alliance with Pipex to support service rollout also in the UK market. It must be a relief to NSN to finally be able to reveal concrete deals and plans. A more nervous set of executives at the 3GSM press conference in February I have yet to see...!

Digital Dividend Review

2007-02-28T21:04:00.000Z

Some interesting presentations were made at an eWestminster forum today with relation to the digital switchover and the resulting so-called "digital dividend review" in the UK. Broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV made it clear that they fear for the future development of HDTV if some of the DDR spectrum is not handed over for this purpose. Arqiva, which was meant to give an idiot's guide to spectrum as the first presentation, instead used it as an opportunity to lambast Ofcom once again over its unyielding stance on the whole DDR process. Mobile operators were conspicuous by their absence on the various panels, which I thought was strange given that they have been lobbying hard for mobile TV spectrum - indeed I think DVB-H was mentioned about once all day. The focus really was on broadcast and HD, while PMSE was presented as an industry that could be destroyed if it is not assured of spectrum after switchover.

One consultant noted that kit you can buy now that says it is "HD-ready" actually supports MPEG2, not MPEG4, which is what "true" HDTV would be based on. The BBC spokesman noted that you'd have to look for the "HDTV" symbol rather than "HD ready". Apparently there would be some sort of common interface that would enable an MPEG4 module to be added, but still, it's worth knowing as a consumer...!

Fears were raised that if digital terrestrial TV does not have sufficient HD services freely available to current Freeview users, then we could see the emergence of another "digital divide" - ie HD vs SD. One panellist said this could eventually seem like the difference between VHS and DVD quality now...

The plan to hold an auction was also much discussed and disputed, as were the ideas of technology neutrality and market-led approaches. Basically, Ofcom will upset someone whichever way it goes. The regulator is sticking to its guns and remains adamant that its approach is the best one available in view of its requirement to try to ensure the best use of the spectrum in the interests of UK consumers.

3GSM

2007-02-14T14:33:00.000Z

It's day three at the annual mobile networking event here in Barcelona, and we're all starting to feel a little frayed around the edges. It's even bigger than ever, and the stands aren't getting any smaller either. All the major vendors seem to be trying to outdo each other with ever larger hospitality suites...

But as usual it's been an interesting week, with announcements ranging from results of mobile TV trials (MediaFLO and BSkyB) through to the usual array of new handset launches (new DVB-H handset from Nokia, to name but one) and demos of technologies yet to come, such as LTE.

Nokia Siemens Networks is presenting a united front at the event for the first time, with a single logo and stand. But the company is still unable to provide a date for when the merger will be completed. The press conference on Monday seemed generally lacking in anything really concrete - there is a sense of being in limbo.

Meanwhile the Nokia/Qualcomm spat over patent rights continues, and all eyes will be on the two companies if 9th April comes and goes with no agreement.

Paul Jacobs seemed to take a certain amount of pleasure in the fact that LG beat off Nokia in the GSMA's "3G for all" tender. LG is also using Qualcomm chips. Nokia wouldn't have done...

Why is it though that we still have to complain about appalling WiFi Internet access at the event...? Some things never seem to change...

Orange UK MVNOs

2007-02-09T14:26:00.000Z

Orange UK looks set to sign its first significant MVNO deal this year. The operator has been bolstered by the 2G roaming deal it signed with 3 last year and is stepping up its wholesale activities. Company sources say the mobile operator is in talks with a number of parties and hopes to sign at least one deal this year.

Orange has clearly defined definitions of the different MVNO "models", ranging from companies that manage their own SIMs through to companies that provide little more than a brand. The operator is largely considering supporting two MVNO models, and is also interested in working with MVNEs as it sees them as facilitators of the virtual operators.

The operator already has MVNO deals in France.

Barcelona madness...

2007-02-08T10:41:00.000Z

It will be chaos next week, more than likely. According to latest estimates from the GSMA the number of people to descend on 3GSM in Barcelona next week will hit the 60,000 mark, well up on last year's figure of around 50,000 and almost double the 34,000 that went to Cannes in 2005. The number of exhibitors is also set to be higher at 1,300, compared with 1,000 last year.

For many of us going to the event next week, and that includes pretty much all of Total Telecom and our sister title Total Content + Media, a key concern will be security and crime. It has been reported that the police dealt with over 1,000 reported thefts from show visitors. It is to be hoped that the situation will improve this year and that measures have been taken to combat crime during the event.

Mobile innovators

2007-02-08T10:32:00.000Z

O2 unveiled a list of top 50 "mobile companies to watch" this week. The companies, all based in the UK, are primarily involved in mobile content or data in some way or other. One journalist present at the unveiling of the list pointed out that there weren't many "pure technology" companies. O2 said this reflects the growing move away from the technology to content...

Apparently the companies nominate themselves and are ranked by a panel of four judges. This year's ranking was topped by mobile user-generated content specialist Yospace, which has only just been acquired by media heavyweight Emap. In O2's view, user-generated content is a key trend to watch this year, along with location-based services and messaging, as well as the increased use of the mobile handset for buying tickets and other similar transactions.

Changes at Total Telecom

2007-02-01T14:20:00.000Z

David Molony has left Total Telecom to try his hand at consultancy - he becomes Principal Analyst within the Enterprise Practice of London-based Ovum with effect from today.

David, who was with Total Telecom and its predecessor, CommunicationsWeek International, for almost 11 years, will be much missed, and we wish him well in his new career!

His departure has led to a reshuffle here at Total Telecom: Anne Morris takes over the editor role for the magazine, while Mary Lennighan is Executive Editor of TT Online. Joanne Taaffe has moved from being part-time to full-time and is deputy editor for the magazine. Existing key staff members are Ian Kemp, Associate Editor of the magazine, and Michelle Young, Art Director.

India calling

2007-01-15T09:52:00.000Z

Watch out for the next move from India's ambitious telco leaders. Not only are they playing hard to get on the domestic front, but they are continuing to test international markets of their own. VSNL is presenting its new VNO operation in Paris tomorrow, headed by Paul Donnelly, ex-Equant EMEA.

Cisco sues Apple

2007-01-11T12:54:00.000Z

So the issue wasn't settled before Apple launched the iPhone. Hmm - well clearly Steve Jobs was so excited about the whole thing that he just couldn't wait and decided to use Macworld to make the announcement anyway.

Cisco said it was expecting an agreement to be reached before the end of the day on Tuesday, but this did not happen, and the company, which owns the iPhone brand in the U.S., is clearly not happy about it.

"It is not a suit about money or royalties. This is a suit about trademark infringement," remarked Cisco SVP and General Counsel Mark Chandler.

Maybe this was the sticking point for Apple:

"Fundamentally we wanted an open approach," said Chandler. "We hoped our products could interoperate in the future. In our view, the network provides the basis to make this happen - it provides the foundation of innovation that allows converged devices to deliver the services that consumers want ... And we wanted to make sure to differentiate the brands in a way that could work for both companies and not confuse people, since our products combine both web access and voice telephony."

Orange v easyMobile

2007-01-10T11:05:00.000Z

So Stelios never got the chance to wear his orange boiler suit in court. Orange and easyMobile apparently quietly settled their dispute over the use of the colour orange out of court. of course the matter will have been eased by the fact that the easyMobile MVNO ceased operations last year.

This is the statement issued by the easyGroup:

"The case brought by Orange Personal Communications against easyMobile has been settled out of court. The businesses have agreed a mutually acceptable position regarding use of the colour orange. Specific terms of the settlement are confidential."

easy continues to insist that its mobile party is not yet over, and has still got the urls www.easyMobile.com and www.easyTelecom.com.

easymobile.com currently is just a phone number for customers looking for help to move their services. easyTelecom.com is a price comparison Web site.

A spokesman for easyGroup said as there is no longer any litigation between easy and Orange, "I can see no legal or other reason why there should not in principle be a business relationship between us."

Apple Computer is dead...

2007-01-09T22:38:00.000Z

... long live Apple Inc.!

Yes, now it's moved beyond computers and into music downloading, TV and as from today mobile phones, the company has rebranded itself.

Amazing how many stories the launch of a phone has generated - just search on Google and you get hundreds of them. There's a lot of excitement about this announcement, although some reports still seem unsure whether or not the Cisco/iPhone branding issue has been resolved, plus others think the prices of $499 for the 4-gig and $599 for the 8-gig seem a little steep.

Others are amazed at the fact that the phone is based on the OS X.

Well, Cingular users will be able to get their sticky fingers on these gadgets first. Europe follows later this year, apparently. Christmas stocking fillers?

iPhone specs...

2007-01-09T20:07:00.000Z

Screen size: 3.5 inches
Screen resolution: 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
Input method: Multi-touch
Operating system: OS X
Storage: 4GB or 8GB
GSM: Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
Wireless data: WiFi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
Camera: 2.0 megapixels
Battery: Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing
-Up to 16 hours Audio playback

Dimensions 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
Weight 4.8 ounces / 135 grams

See iPhone on apple.com...

2007-01-09T19:54:00.000Z

Well, here is it... the iPhone for the iFans amongst you.

It's a phone, an iPod and an email/web browsing device, all in one.

iPhone is launched...

2007-01-09T19:40:00.000Z

Speculation reached fever pitch on Tuesday as the industry waited with bated breath for Steve Jobs' annual address at the Macworld conference in San Francisco.

And yes, the man who invented the iMac, iTunes and the now iconic iPod told us all what we had been waiting to hear: That Apple would be launching an iPod-based mobile handset.

One potential sticking point seems to have been overcome: Cisco, which has the rights to the iPhone brand name in the U.S., said it expects to reach an agreement with Apple Computer Inc. later on Tuesday on its "iPhone" trademark, according to Reuters.

Dow Jones Newswires later reported that Cisco confirmed that Apple has acquired the brand after "repeated requests".

Dow Jones also said Jobs confirmed earlier reports that Cingular Wireless, now owned by AT&T, will be the first mobile operator to carry the iPhone.

Jobs is apparently targeting sales of 10m iPhones in 2008.

VoIP on the air

2007-01-09T13:58:00.000Z

You know its coming up for 3GSM Congress and time to pack bags for Barcelona when the "VoiP/wireless revolution begins here" stories start appearing. This is the third year in a row, guys. It's a dualmode handset! We even hit the hype button ourselves last time around. Like the guy in the video, we're still wrestling with dodgy signals. But as far as we can tell we haven't been billed once yet in 12 months. Ah, IP billing... Still, the money men must think there's something to it—whoever they are. Let's hope they are not left disappointed.

Altimo strikes - at what?

2007-01-08T11:41:00.000Z

Russian global mobile wannabe Altimo is being slow about exercising its ambitions. While Voda and rivals slug it out for India, Altimo is still building up its international baord of directors. Its getting good people- joining Julian Horn-Smith this time is Kurt Hellstrom ex-Ericsson, although as usual there's no mention on the website. Just what will be left for them to make a move on once Hutch's global assets have been divvied up? Vietnam apparently.

new year lack of resolutions

2007-01-04T13:54:00.000Z

thanks to austria's finest for a great christmas present
other seasonal messages are not so upbeat, but this one from japan gets our vote for straight talking. Imagine; an incumbent being honest about the impact of competition and regulation. And no complaints, just straight talking: "Regulate us and we are galvanised..."
Why did the FCC just step back from ruling on Internet access regulation? There's trouble ahead, mark our words....

More patent disputes...

2007-01-03T12:32:00.000Z

Reports are out that the Washington Research Foundation is bringing patent infringement claims on behalf of the University of Washington against three handset manufacturers. According to Reuters, "The Foundation claims the three firms have sold handsets and devices in the United States using CSR's Bluetooth chips which use technology that infringe the University's radio frequency receiver patents."

Broadcom chips are OK, apparently, as the company has already licensed the radio frequency receiver patents. CSR hasn't. Shares in the U.K. Bluetooth chip specialist fell on Wednesday following the news, but it's unclear yet what the outcome might be, and how adversely the company might be affected.

Bluetooth technology is largely seen as an invention by Ericsson engineers. The technology is generally available royalty-free on the market...

HD, anyone?

2007-01-02T14:18:00.000Z

I suddenly noticed the arrival of a "BBC HD" channel on my Telewest cable TV service, but of course I can't watch it as I don't have "HD-ready" equipment. To be able to watch the "sharper" images promised by high-definition TV you need to have the right equipment, while programmes also have to be made in the right format.

But of course there is also the not insignificant issue of spectrum. The BBC is currently trialing an HD service via cable or satellite set-box boxes, but makes it clear that HD services will not be available on Freeview for some time yet:

"Unfortunately it is unlikely that broadcasters will be able to deliver high-definition programming on Freeview for some years to come. The airwaves are too crowded with existing analogue and digital services to fit in HD programming from the BBC or from anyone else. We will keep this under review as technology changes," the broadcaster says on its Web site.

In the U.K. the regulator Ofcom is not assigning spectrum to any particular technology, either. Even though a great deal of spectrum will become available once the country has switched over from analogue to digital TV, the "technology neutral" approach to spectrum means the airwaves will be up for grabs for anyone that can afford it.

Ofcom has been lauded for its neutral approach, but it certainly means that investing in new technology that needs new spectrum (eg WiMAX, mobile TV and HDTV) becomes a lot more scary...!

Net Neutralat&t

2007-01-02T10:48:00.000Z

The next big one is confirmed - AT&T has bagged Bellsouth in the end.

The telco's negotiators apparently persuaded the FCC commissioners they should give it the benefit of the doubt, by offering some commitments to help preserve so-called "Net neutrality". But the terms of the deal have caused some consternation, not just because it was smuggled through at a suspiciously late hour. The estimable Dave Burstein points out there are some footnotes to AT&T's commitments which could leave them qualified, as the auditors might say.

According to Burstein, at&t... sorry, AT&T, has agreed “not to provide … any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet transmitted over AT&T/BellSouth's wireline broadband Internet access service based on its source, ownership or destination.”

But later on in its submission to the FCC, the company says “This commitment also does not apply to AT&T/BellSouth's Internet Protocol television (IPTV) service.” Since the whole point of the net neutrality argument is to be inclusive to the letter, this sort of knocks a big hole in the 'commitment'. AT&T is betting the farm on IPTV and bundled products (as is Verizon.)

Follow the investment money; in effect AT&T will be its IPTV portfolio, when you count in high speed Internet -and that's where the new subs are signing up. Over at rival Verizon, the new FiOS IPTV portfolio is registering 15% Internet access penetration after 12 months, with 99% of FiOS subs taking a second service and 79% on triple play.

This could either blow the net neutrality dispute so far open it remains in contention for ever, or it could, in Burstein's words, be the first sign of political pressure that will "get AT&T to behave after all". For the moment, the US press is keeping its powder dry.

To be fair to AT&T, the initial commitment not to provide any service that 'prioritize' packets seems a strange one that would only handicap everyone. Its new services will be based on class of service, and so presumably will be its competitors'. And actually, big carriers exist partly to differentiate on CoS, on behalf of their operator customers. That has to extend to Internet service providers . AT&T would have to give other ISPs equal access to all its network and OSS to guarantee no other service provider was disdvantaged in the bitstream, but is unlikely to be committing to full wholesale access to all its own retail services after all these years.

Consolidated AT&T Inc rolls up four already huge operators previously called AT&T Corp, BellSouth Corp., Cingular Wireless and SBC Communications. Pro forma the new group had revenues equal to 73 billion euros in financial 2005, which puts it up to 2nd place in our Global 100, just behind NTT Corp on 75 billion euros but ahead of Verizon on 63.6 billion euros. (There's a degree - maybe a lot - of double counting of the Cingular revenues which were split between AWE and BLS previously; AT&T's recent quarterly statements are unclear about where these revenues are nowadays.)

We''ll have to wait for clarification in the latest full year revenue figures out 25th January.

Voda slips 2

2006-12-22T15:08:00.000Z

What is it with Voda stories that gets everyone tongue-tied, so to speak? Control of a big overseas company has not alluded Arun Sarin — although it has eluded him. J Warner tells us he is suitably shamed....

Happy Christmas to you all...

Voda's Indian analysts

2006-12-22T09:11:00.000Z

Voda has confirmed its interest in Hutchison Essar.
Why are analysts always "worried" that buyers will "overpay" for these deals? Oh no even bigger bonuses for us next year! What's to worry about - and if they can't make that connection, why are they paid so much in the first place?????

Fox in the City

2006-12-21T08:57:00.000Z

We like City AM. It's one of the few newspapers left that understands how to write a front page story.
But it gets things wrong too and there's a delicious literal in today's top story that Vodafone is eying up Hutchison Essar in India. City AM says Voda's Arun Sarin is expected to meet "Canning Fox", md of Hutchison ... "on Friday to discuss the deal."
Kin-ning Fok may be a wily one, but he hasn't adopted the title yet...
Tee hee. Still, not as silly as some stories about Hutch - this one seems to be 100% typos.
Goldman Sachs analysts (who for some reason prefer the FT for this story) think a “package deal incorporating any of Hutchison’s European assets is interesting but does not look to us to be a particularly practical proposition." Voda can only acquire 74% of Essar under foreign ownership rules, and GS analysts reckon Voda has enough loose change to match the current market value of that stake - about $10.8 billion.
Selling its 10% stake in Airtel - market value about $2.5 bil - would make it even easier.

eco telco

2006-12-19T14:59:00.000Z

Today is eco- day in telecoms. But that means different things: socio-economic growth according to a rather bizarre "Eco Growth" promo article sent to us from PR consultants acting for Roshan in Afghanistan (a company we like btw - just see WCA).
AsiaSat has a slightly more coherent case.
If these seem random, watch out for the bankers - they are increasingly making the telcology connection between energy, environment and telecoms.

spectra - the lost world

2006-12-11T09:42:00.000Z

credit to ofcom for keeping up the effort to get new spectrum out there. you might be forgiven for thinking that issue had gone away or at least is nothing to worry about for the moment, but worldwide 4G airwave looks like another mess waiting to happen

Russo-Scandi mobile giant

2006-12-08T17:59:00.000Z

Some curious dealmaking in global mobile. Wherever did they get that idea?

the revolution will not be advertised

2006-11-29T15:57:00.000Z

From today's emailbox:

Mobile Advertising: Small Today, Huge Tomorrow
Mobile Advertising & Marketing Conference 2006 - visiongain conference
Mobile operators look to advertising as convergence forces reassessment of business models
Online Advertising: Opportunity for the Music Industry?
Complimentary Report Excerpt: MObile Advertising MOre Money
Exclusive invitation to Mashup* on Advertising 2.0

before you rush into this exciting new market, check out MOBILE MARKETING ASSOCIATION UPDATES MOBILE ADVERTISING GUIDELINES

taxi rank story

2006-11-27T17:07:00.000Z

it's that time of the year for the "thousands of mobile phones are left in the backs of taxis every year" story. And laptops, and memory sticks. Quick, buy our security device now.... It's based on real research, you know, although the honest cabbies who commissioned it are too embarassed to put it on their web site. In a desperate effort to refresh the story, they are suggesting its not just happening in London (last year's take) but in Bombay (sic) and Sydney too.

Orange Scandi

2006-11-22T17:32:00.001Z

Just when you think it is safe to go to press... the briefing section on Managed Services for the December issue (a good read in store) is already at the printer... (no, make that a great read...) Then this happens Is it just coincidence that senior people from the French and Swedish partners were sat together at top table for the WCA gala dinner just 10 days' before? The lesson is: be there next year, its where the deals happen!

You say Tomato...

2006-11-13T09:02:00.000Z

Congrats to all the winners at this year's WCA. If you were there, thanks for coming and hope you enjoyed it. Special thanks to BT for keeping the party swinging after the main event. If you were confused by the exchange of views between the editor TT who introduced the show, and the man from the Economist who spoke on behalf of the judges, and want to understand better which was on the side of free markets (clue: they both are-they just say it differently), here's your chance. First up, the text of the intro is here. Next, the chair of judges has his say here. Enjoy.

vote early....

2006-11-02T14:19:00.000Z

eye-catching news item for WCA judges trying to make sense of the polling for Most Influential Person in Communications. Who needs e-audits? We know where the votes are coming from - and we'll take the appropriate action!

bigger than 21CN

2006-10-20T10:48:00.000Z

It's hard keeping pace with BT these days. This week the company stepped up its managed network deal with Alliance & Leicester to add VoIP in the mix; a nice curtain-raiser to the 21CN switch on next month. BT Media is building a VoD platform for Channel Five's download service -which will keep BT busy in more ways than one.
But the big scoop was signing up a new CIO for BT Global Services - right out of one of the world's biggest banks. There's a strategy here for BT's chiefs of staff in network services and IT to bring their operations into one giant applications workshop for the 21CN ...

Friday 13th - The Outsourcing

2006-10-13T10:05:00.000Z

congratulations to Russian IT house Luxoft for carrying off one of last night's NOA awards (NB to NOA please post these!)
why did so many in the audience make backhander gestures when one of the Big 5 went up to collect an award?
what a shame the only thing the after dinner speaker had to say to his audience was "we used to write lots of bad things about you outsourcers, but nowadays we don't. so my conclusion is there's not much to write about; well done"
wasn't he supposed to say something about how outsourcing has been one of the drivers of the western economy helping sustain eight years continuous growth? we would have done, and for half his fee.
but maybe he had a point - the NOA should have known better than to host the awards on the eve of Friday 13th:
OUTSOURCING MARKET FALLS BACK

Massive

2006-10-11T14:38:00.000Z

If you are heading for the IDATE forum 14th November - you should be going to Budapest! But if you are already booked for Montpellier (highly recommended), don't forget your joystick.

Meet the demand

2006-10-04T13:19:00.000Z

A good contact writes to remind us that Cisco is still struggling to impress the service provider/carrier market (still in the 'Others' category vs Alcatel, Ericsson, Nokia and the Chinese, according to Dresdner Kleinwort)
Cisco's latest marketing ploy is to put the frighteners on that carriers are testing deep packet inspection to see how much Skype or similar traffic is crossing their networks then degrading or blocking traffic types they disapprove of and "ruining service innovation on the Internet."
The flaw in this: Carriers don't want to stop traffic. Not a single one at Carriers World last week wanted to stop traffic (ok they are wholesale carriers, but they are the fastest growing business line in telco group operations). True, they all want to understand how to make more money - but either they get a better price or they partner with content providers etc and share in revenues. They all had the same answers to this question of traffic throttling, which was asked several times...
1. 'MySpace is adding 650k users a day - that's a city. As they move into a subscription model those users will demand QoS and we can charge for it.
2. 'Skype is at forefront of FMC, not Voda. We have to take a stake...
3. ' BitTorrent is an incredibly legitimate technology which will be widely adopted."
4. New apps are using the network. Good. They need more than standardised bandwidth."
These carriers have come to the right conclusion - manage your operating costs, not the traffic. ......
"It's not just about bandwidth it's about security, hosting and things like that."
"The challenge is to get your position. Plus you need to get your costs right."
"MySpace? Get a network able to cope with it. Meet the demand."

Offshore

2006-09-29T10:11:00.000Z

Always a pleasure to read bah's monthly mag (registration)

there's a thought-provoking centrepiece article on outsourcing which once you've picked through the consultancy-speak (their top tip: 'Be a Visionary' We know!) is actually very helpful on the difference between outsourcing and offshoring. Outsourcing is a P+L moment - as Accenture telecoms manager Meredith Rose told TT yesterday "The minute that outsourcing contract is signed, the building blocks are already being put in place to take those activities back in-house" - i.e it is not clear it is a "strategy" at all. It needs to be managed, but as these Germany-based consultants point out, a typical multinational HQ has 0.3 people in strategic planning. But offshoring: that's a bit closer to forever (your IT and CAD centers are gone to Bratislava or Mumbai) and is where the serious money is going. Hence IBM's 6 billion USD investment in India. Namecheck some of the big-hitters like Subramanian Ramadorai, CEO of TCS (Tata Consulting - which had a good presence at our Carriers World conference this week.)

BAH's article is based on a survey by Duke Uni CIBER unit and Booz Allen which claims it "is the first ever to track the complete range of offshoring activities — including IT, business processes, engineering, and product design — across a broad array of industries, including financial services, manufacturing, technology, computer technology, media, software and programming, energy, defense, and automotive" Good data charts at the end of the final page.

Brandilicious

2006-09-26T14:46:00.000Z

BT has rebranded Albacom as BT Italia. Telefonica rebranded its Czech operations as 02. Is there no end to the imagination?
One European telco that needs a brand overhaul is Deutsche Telekom. "Too clunky!" "Not international!" How about "mytelco" ? It's so global, so Internet, yet no other service provider is using this - only a few weirdo software vendors. There'll be no charge for this.

FTTH not worth a kopek

2006-09-26T14:06:00.000Z

France Telecom CEO has nixed the FTTH. "No investor would put a kopek in it," says Didier Lombard.
Isn't this a huge volte face? Or at least a surprise rethink? He certainly sounded different in February, when he announced FTTH trials in the Paris region would start mid year. It also might be news to his chief network officer.
Is this all Sol Trujillo's fault? Or does Lombard think he can be smart and let Iliad burn up on the fibreway? Analysts don't think so. JP Morgan reckons Iliad will get 105 million euros annual cash flow for its 1 billion investment (after 10 years), but they also don't think Deutsche Telekom will get more than 60 million euros per annum incremental revenues on its hybrid VDSL network in Germany (cost 3 billion). So what's a kopek worth?

Vanco figures up

2006-09-26T11:31:00.000Z

Vanco just posted good revenue figures for H1 although not on its website yet. Stated turnover up 31% and good gross margins too. But watch for cash flow margins down from 13.0% to 9.1% (this is a managed services business not just a VNO - managed services is more expensive) and double check the order book. Contracted total is up 19.0% to 327 mil GBP year on year but hasn't moved since January this year.

Hurrah for Chua

2006-09-21T09:49:00.000Z

Ms Chua Sock Koong has been chosen CEO at SingTel. Her appointment will double the number of female telecoms CEOs in the TT Global 100 report (out next week everyone) assuming Theresa Gattung holds onto her place at TNZ in 2007...

Russian mobile goes global

2006-09-19T08:33:00.000Z

Altimo, the telecoms investment holding company for Vimpelcom, Megafon and other mobile assets of Russia's Alfa group, has appointed sir Julian Horn-Smith, one time Vodafone deputy CEO, to head a new international advisory board, although it is not announced on the website just yet
Altimo/Alfa's ambitions have been brewing all year When we met Alexey Reznikovich, Altimo CEO, in January, he said Altimo was looking "to put all its investments into one telecoms holding company which would own the majorit of invetsments. We would join efforts with a major operating company in an international strategic partnership." Seems that time has arrived. It has not escaped notice that there are one or two prime opportunities for big mobile, even today. For one, several analysts' reports suggest there's room for a new big entrant to the US market as the summer spectrum auctions open up a new market front.

state of the enterprise

2006-09-13T09:33:00.000Z

The team at Forrester is always worth paying attention to - here's the heads up on their latest report on The State of Enterprise Managed Service Adoption. Clunky title, but if you want to hear from one thousand N American and European corporates on where they are taking their network business, check it out.

Dutch

2006-09-11T17:21:00.000Z

Dutch digital TV station Sport1 is launching simultaneous streamed Internet service for Uefa Champions League matches. Sport1 is the latest TV broadcaster to sign up for these rights under Uefa's new deal for the 2006-09 seasons which mandate web broadcast live at the same time as trad TV/pay TV broadcast. Telcos where are you? NTT Com is making the best of it, but it's uphill because telcos are slow to hook up for multicasts.

UTStar colours up

2006-09-06T07:50:00.000Z

UTStarcom has unveiled a colour screen handset for mobile WiFi users. Our RabbitMobile is an F1000 fromRabbitpoint; the new one is an F3000 and you can use it on Mobiboo, which claims to be the UK’s first commercial VoIP WiFi network operator.
UTS's other big product line is in IP DSLAMs. Aren't there signs the DSL broadband project is running out of steam? Not for David King, UTStarcom SVP international sales - he says the company has shipped 1 million IP DSLAMs in eastern Europe where it is concentrating on altnets like GTS (see our upcoming CEE telecoms supplement), and tens of thousands of lines equivalent in fixed wireless systems in Africa and central America.
These are tier 2 regions right now, but there's some bigger news to come in India, where King says to watch for a $70 million deal in broadband access lines. He says UTStar will build its own manufacturing facility there.
If operators want to build fibre networks, UTS is developing an FTTN system for SBB (SoftBank)
China? There's still confusion over 3G, but UTStar has IPTV systems in place as well as fixed mobile networks called PAS (sort of PHS).
The fixed wireless data stuff is great according to King. OK its CDMA-based and there's a damper on those networks right now, but that's a royalties issue that'll get sorted out between mobile operators and their IPR supplier.

Anti-Communications matter

2006-08-31T10:56:00.000Z

A US reader in "computational condensed matter physics" writes scathingly:

"I have one question. Is the
World Communication Award a joke? I ask this for the simple reason that
Cogent Communications is a finalist. As a consumer of reliable, high
volume, high throughput data networks, Cogent ranks number 1 on my list of
companies that do their best to harm the Internet. They have made no
substantial positive contributions, but have engaged, on numerous
occasions, in Tier 1 provider wars, using blockades and service
degredation as tactics in contract negotiations. I recall the Cogent and
Level 3 incident of last year. Plus, every 3 months, it seems Cogent has
a spat with AT&T, in which it cuts data throughput between AT&T's network
and theirs. In fact, as I write this, it seems the spat which began on
August 26th has just ended. Without doubt, Cogent is tops on my
Anti-Communication Award list."

(trans.).. Ouch, doesn't that Internet neutrality really hurt the heavy user! If only AT&T just ran everything like they used to ...

i-Telecom

2006-08-30T13:02:00.000Z

Back after a week out of office without broadband, it's good to see the back office movers and shakers catching up on telecoms/IT convergence. IBM's latest acquisition suggests the time is right to get the money out.

Der Ball ist Rund

2006-08-15T08:14:00.000Z

Deutsche Telekom missed out on the World Cup, but it has got around to IPTV football now with Bundesliga games going live this season.
It might help get some momentum back into DTAG's broadband campaign, which slowed up a lot in Q2 - analysts expected nearly 250k DSL adds from T-Online; they got 15k.

NGN hits the buffer

2006-08-04T14:21:00.000Z

Telstra has cancelled a A$3.4 billion NGN investment reportedly, just as Sol Trujillo had threatened. Regulators (outside the US and Japan) don't seem to be taking telcos seriously enough.

SACkloth and ashes

2006-08-02T10:36:00.000Z

Despite what we said about SACs the last couple of days, there are ways to control them, as KPN's mobile man in Germany, Stan Miller, is showing. He's got SACs down without hurting revenue, and margins are 30% versus 20% in other KPN mobile subsidiaries. So unpick that!

Mobile data data

2006-08-01T14:54:00.000Z

Yesterday's bill from my mobile service provider came in at 50.42 GBP for the month. Of that, I spent 20.95 GBP on data services, WAP browsing and downloads etc but not including texts- because of a "texts included" package I only spend a couple of quid on them. On that basis I'm in the supertax league i.e 40% plus for data services, and way above typical data ARPUs for UK mobile MNOs. Looked at another way, there's good scope for mobile data revenues. If I'm spending 20 quid, somebody else is only spending 2 pounds.

Living the broadband dream

2006-07-28T13:13:00.000Z

BT has been feeling the heat this week from broadband competitors and from analysts saying the national operator will have to cut prices (and margins) for Internet service. Nobody's saying what the new prices will be - every £1 cut is £84 million off Ebitda says JP Morgan - but we can exclusively reveal the new BT BB rate will be £12.50 a month. This is what our art director was offered in a dream she had this week. In real life, she has been living the nightmare of Carphone Warehouse's 'free broadband' campaign

vodaland

2006-07-26T13:28:00.000Z

just to rub salt in voda's wounds, informa does this. informa say mobile data is bigger than new zealand now...

Voda

2006-07-24T11:41:00.000Z

Voda's KPIs here. It's wild to see how fast Voda is going down - apparently. No doubt analysts will explain the figures better. In the meantime there are some good-looking numbers on new products in there:

7 million + registered for Voda Passport
894k zuhause subs in Germany
1.22 million 3g in Spain
( but 'only' 1.23 mil 3G in UK - doesn't sound so great)

also:

Voice volumes in Germany +19.8% yoy
ditto in Spain +23.5% where 95.2% of net adds are contract customers

set against that Italian service revenue is -3.4% and termination rate cuts are biting

Goldman Sachs reckons Germans are spending a bit more, but the dreaded SARC (subs acquisition and retention costs) are catching up fast.

Credit Suisse has zoomed in on Messaging (Voda includes SMS, MMS and email). These account for 12.5% of group service revenues. Credit Suisse has tracked the quarterly trends and calculates that ARPU from messaging has fallen in three consecutive quarters in Germany, Spain and Italy.

still, as we highlight in the current cover story featured here, voda's not the only mobile operator running to keep up. There's trouble brewing for Vivo in Latin America too... just ask JP Morgan and/or the 'rebranded' Dresdner Kleinwort

NTT Europe Online

2006-07-21T11:16:00.000Z

Verio in Europe has been renamed NTT Europe Online and will be integrated with NTT Europe, says its new MD Kaz Nishihata. If this sounds like cosmetic rebranding, it is not, says Kaz. Expect a big announcement and if you want to know about what, remind yourself of the story we broke in July last year.

Top 10

2006-07-18T19:30:00.001Z

Don't confuse today's minor musicawards shortlist with The Awards shortlistWe can't promise Scritti Pollitti, but book tables for the gala dinner now!

WCA pictures

2006-07-14T12:47:00.000Z

Check out our photos from the WCA judging on Wednesday, kindly hosted at the offices of multimap.
And enter our caption competition- details soon!

2+1 equals ?

2006-07-13T11:53:00.000Z

It may just coincidence, but Asian carriers seem to be jostling for position in Europe again.
Singtel has appointed Barry Walsh, former Equant head of eastern Europe, as MD Europe. Barry is Singtel's first 'local' European MD although you won't find him here. He replaces Hock Yong Chua.
Next week we'll be meeting NTT Europe's new MD, Mr Kazuhiro Nishihata, who is also president of Verio Europe. NTT Europe has been without an MD in London for a couple of years so this is welcome news.
Last but not least we would have been meeting Sol Trujillo at Telstra Europe's centre in Docklands this Friday, but he's been called away.
It all adds up !

Two degrees of separation

2006-07-13T09:29:00.000Z

We just about got our breath back from last week's 'structural separation' story when the EC delivers an upper-cut to the mobile industry.
Meanwhile businesses have to get on with figuring out where they fit in the NGN schema. Here's a little something to help them...

NGN in the night

2006-07-07T15:45:00.000Z

Ovum pulled out the big guns for an evening NGN seminar this week. They must have read our comment.
Full treatment from Ovum's senior analysts on NGN tech, business case for/against, regulatory threats and promises.
Then great questions from Vodafone, Gamma, Global Crossing, BT.
Q "Doesn't NGN re-establish incumbent network monopoly?"
A "Probably, but it doesn't matter because we're all competing on service packages not connections - assuming we get shared access."
Q "What about mobile? Why doesn't mobile ever get mentioned in NGN discussion."
A. "Stop complaining there's plenty of FMC going on."
Q. "Are regulatory structures fit for purpose"
A. "NOOOO! Don't get us started on that one!"
Q. "What impact will Wimax have on NGN?"
A1. "None, don't lose sleep." A2. "Huge, its going to wipe out the fixed network"
Q. "See I told you mobile mattered."

Prize for snappy answer to a stupid question goes to Stephen Young.. When I asked "What's the risk these investments will fail?" he said:
"You don't need an NGN to drive your network into the ground.... plenty of telcos have."

glasshouse security

2006-07-04T13:18:00.000Z

Just back from a very lively and interesting session on security at the Mobility Summit. Wish I had been able to make the whole two days, based on this panel, engagingly moderated by Charles Brookson of GSM Association.
This is basically an enterprise event - the panel comprised public research, consultancy, banking and technology vendors. They agreed security is essentially a "people problem" (you can only throw so much tech at it, you can't control behaviour etc) and there were some great anecdotes from the floor e.g 50% of delegates in an IT security class (yes!) responded to a phishing message sent out by their class leader.
But it was a bit ironic that a delegate from a major international mobile operator should ask "what can operators do to help manage security"
Try not tapping or hacking their own users?
To be fair, when I put this to the panel at the end of the session, they were very concerned to stress that service providers do everything they can to protect end-users from inside-network dirty dealings. Today's panel was, as the moderator pointed out "about revenue risks to organisations" first. But as David Lacey said it's a big problem with "no solution."

Wall St Jnl article - Day four

2006-07-04T13:15:00.000Z

"While U.S. consumers still mostly use their cellphones to simply talk -- or perhaps send text messages to their friends -- their Asian counterparts are increasingly using mobile phones to help manage their spiritual, social and everyday needs. A host of companies are cropping up offering services for cellphones like the text-messaged prayers to Ganesh, ways to track praying schedules and even dating services. Some cellphones also contain technology that allows them to double as debit and credit cards."

(Ed - OK, I'm going to stop this thread since nobody seems to get the joke, and its 4 july....)

Heavy LLifting

2006-07-04T09:09:00.000Z

Today's the day BT switches on its Bulk LLU Handler. No they are not diversifying into shipping or aggregates; its a system for letting altnets switch BT lines across to their broadband services quicker and in numbers.
So good news for Pipex & co. But while the mechanics of unbundling may have changed, the economics don't necessarily.

WCA news

2006-06-30T14:03:00.000Z

We have a bumper 200 company entries for the World Communication Awards as of this morning; a record. If you haven't sent yours, do it right now; today's the day!

Gloves off

2006-06-30T12:58:00.000Z

Telcos are cutting up rough with the regulators. KPN has started proceedings against the Dutch state for regulatory discrimination. Telstra is threatening to supend a 3.5 billion Aussie dollar network investment. Sol Trujillo wants the government to guarantee his profits. Nice business!

It seems the regulatory honeymoon post the 2001 crash is over. Regulators have been somewhat sympathetic to debt-burdened telcos getting back on their feet, but operators should not have thought it would last for ever. Regulators are back on the case. Well in Europe anyway; the FCC went into retirement a while back.

This is all the telcos' own fault of course - especially BT's. BT has been flexing and stretching its business in all directions, putting its network operations on a risk basis, and yet Ben Verwaayen keeps coming back with record profits.
Regulators can't see why telcos need more help. And in Europe, Viviane Reding has the perfect case for structural separation for everyone.

Wall St Jnl article - Day Three

2006-06-30T12:57:00.000Z

"Normally we do go to the temple, but we can't find time all the time," says Pushkar Rege, a 25-year-old who lives in Vasai, a city 30 miles north of Mumbai. Mr. Rege sends two to three messages each month, recently praying for a smooth path for his brother who just graduated from college.

Hollywood lightens the telco burden maybe

2006-06-28T10:04:00.000Z

We hang our heads in shame at missing Ovum's report on how Hollywood is rethinking its dealmaking with Internet service providers and telcos. If you did too - get it now. Josette Bonte. Ovum's new vp content and IPTV says the broadband content revolution began 3 April 2006, the day the film studios agreed to release big titles for Internet download the same day they are released on DVD.

"This is the year the studios are discovering broadband," Josette told us when she stopped by our offices on a visit from LA where she is based.

If like us you sat up at Disney's move to stream episodes of prime time shows on ABC.com, well you were right it is important, but probably not as important as the studios' agreement. That matters because it changes the way film-makers will deal with telcos, and lets the telcos in on a revenue management model that has underpinned international film distribution for ever. If you want to know more, go here

Wall St Jnl article - Day Two

2006-06-28T10:03:00.000Z

But technology is making it easier for worshippers to pray to Ganesh these days. Every Wednesday, two attendants at the temple print out text messages sent to the god -- some 70,000 per week -- from cellphone users across India. Each message is then neatly folded and placed in a box by the temple's gold and vermilion idol.

Roundtable summer madness

2006-06-28T09:50:00.000Z

Today must be National Roundtable Day. First up was Atos Origin to discuss procurement strategies with Boots and Vodafone. Next we're off top meet LogicaCMG to talk mobile data with Orange and how to fend off the evil Google ;0) ["You Brits and your sense of humor!"] Will we make it to BT's CTO strategy soiree later? Tune in tomorrow

report fest

2006-06-26T11:06:00.000Z

The mother of all TMT market reports arrived last week in form of the this baby from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
You'll have guessed from previous posts this has been bumper season for analysts' and consultants' reports.
The PwC survey is a bit special, weighing in at multiple Mb if you get the e-version. Impressive sections on TV broadcast inc cable, Internet ad spend etc.
But don't miss the other goodies out there - including BackChannel's update on UK Business Internet servcies. That market could hot up if Cogent serves up the same price plans in Internet access it does for international IP services.

Wall St Journal article - Day One

2006-06-23T11:30:00.000Z

For centuries, devotees of the Hindu god Ganesh have walked barefoot from their homes to pray at Mumbai's Siddhivinayak Temple. Depicted with an elephant head and a potbelly, Ganesh is believed to destroy obstacles that could keep people from, say, buying a house or launching a business. On Tuesdays, considered the god's day, visitors wait as long as five hours to enter the temple.

HSDPA for Macs!

2006-06-22T12:56:00.000Z

Vodafone officially launches its HSDPA service for laptop users today. The good news for the Mac-lovers amongst us is that the operator plans to offer an HSDPA ExpressCard for the new MacBook models. The cards should be out by Christmas, members of Vodafone's business marketing team say. Could pre-integrated Macs be next?

The operator is also now selling a router that you can use to set up a mini-wireless network any time, any place with HSDPA used for backhaul. Certainly could be useful for those of us based in hotels at conferences with dodgy WiFi access! They'll need to sort out the 1-gigabyte-per-month data limit though.

-Anne Morris

BT Livebox, O2 Imagenio

2006-06-20T08:40:00.000Z

Everybody's chasing Orange. BT is launching what looks like its answer to Orange Livebox - a home gateway package called Total Broadband including broadband, WiFi and VoIP, together with Fusion and apparently 370 GBP of goodies thrown in.
And O2 is acquiring broadband ISP Be for 50 million GBP, on behalf of Telefonica's international broadband strategy.
Nice heads up to our FMC briefing, going to press this week - read it in the July issue of TT mag. AD Little said back in February this would be the year of FMC and its been hard to keep up with operator announcements the last few days. On Friday Swisscom said it reorganised the whole group for FMC.

2006-06-16T15:46:00.000Z

At Idate's soiree in Simpson's in the Strand last night.

Sanjiv Ahuja said Orange expects to get 5-10% of all its revenues from user-generated content within 3 years.
"We will generate our own content from our own users," he insists. "We have to."

One questioner from the floor asked why users would want Orange to look after their content.
Because there are 65k blogs in France and 1.2 million visitors to them and 140 million views online, and:
"Users are looking at these on mobile as much as in fixed," says Ahuja.

Another questioner asked Ahuja if he thought there would be more consolidation of networks and operators.
Ahuja immediately asked her who she was, and it turned out she was from Ofcom.
"He doesn't know me," she said later. "But he seemed to know instinctively he was dealing with a regulator!"
Ahuja took the opportunity to register his dismay at the European Commission's intervention on roaming charges.
"We signed national licence agreements," he said. "When did the Commission start regulating national markets?" Then he remembered that Orange spent 4 billion on 3G spectrum, and looked quite pained.

What did you say?

2006-06-16T07:33:00.000Z

Returning home tired and emotional from watching the England-Trinis match and hearing Sanjiv Ahuja's speech at the Idate reception (more of that later) I mistakenly texted the following to our home phone number "Hi hon I'm on the train and hungry. xxx" My wife was impressed to get her first SMS-fixed message, but pointed out that the synthesised voice version she heard sounded like an invitation to a porn chat line. A lesson to us all...

Triple Quad Whammy

2006-06-13T16:24:00.000Z

"Even with fantasy assumptions, the [triple play] business case remains bad"

(see Operators told to expect big losses on IPTV networks

"Quadruple play is a fallacy"

and what's more

"Big Barriers to the Adoption of
Mobile Value-Added Services"

had enough yet?

Telcology 2

2006-06-12T16:04:00.001Z

Stephen Young, consultant at Ovum, has spotted a report by independent consultancy CarbonSense featured on BT's society website.
Young says BT is one of the few telecoms companies taking environmental issues seriously. When he wrote a report on Climate Change and the Telco in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina last year, only BT responded.
About the time Stephen was writing his report, and BT's chairman Sir Christopher Bland was making a speech to the Carbon Disclosure Project, we were launching our Telcology newsletter.
We got one response too. Honourable mention to Ericsson, then.
If you would like to see a copy of the launch issue of Telcology email me:
david.molony@totaltele.com

Planning a network?

2006-06-09T12:17:00.000Z

Heads up on two new reports. Vodafone may not have set the world alight with its last strategy outline, but it has more up its sleeve, according to Emma Mohr-McClune at Current Analysis. In fact, it has quietly assembled a portfolio of mobile VPN/intranet services for SMEs which its now rolling out. Why Voda has been keeping quiet is not clear; possibly because it has mixed feelings about segmentation offers - something we had heard separately.

Lars Godell at Forrester has produced the first of a series of reports on broadband/triple play service strategies. Telcos trying to pick their way through infrastructure investment options will find some useful guidance. In fact the numbers in the report help explain why telcos have been reluctant to go for full fibre access networks.

(Registrations required)

World Cup of woe

2006-06-08T13:55:00.000Z

The 2006 World Cup will be the first to get featured live on the Internet but it has come one year too early for most telecoms operators.

The BBC is going to be showing its matches live on the web as well as on TV. But it's not making a huge fuss about advertising the fact. Presumably the Corporation is treading carefully around possible broadcast licence issues.

Among the telcos, BT is not battle-ready yet, despite the new deal for Premier League rights. Deutsche Telekom, host nation operator, is the most glaring no-show for IPTV.

KPN and Belgacom would have been the obvious best candidates as host-nation incumbent telcos. They just finished their first seasons of football IPTV and KPN has just celebrated signing three top Dutch clubs for next season's coverage. But who knows if they would have been happy to have got a Fifa deal? Belgacom needed 410 people to wrap up for the Belgian league. What would be the economics of a global tournament? Maybe they are relieved the last Benelux-hosted (Euro) championships were held back in 2000.

Queue jumping

2006-06-07T16:08:00.000Z

Another day under email bombardment leaves my current backlog of unread press releases at 1,399 - despite wading heavily into them this morning.
PRs who call to ask if I have read the email they sent earlier go to the back of the queue....
What have I missed? No sign of an IPO for NTT Com yet, despite our story that a Japanese government panel has recommended breaking up NTT.... in 2011.
One very interesting report says two-thirds of laptop owning rail passengers are making use of in-train WiFi. There are new markets out there.

Asia-Pac cables

2006-06-06T09:36:00.000Z

The spinout of Asia Netcom is an indication that things are reviving in the Asia-Pac longhaul business. It's also another reminder that a new generation of emerging international carriers in China and India is going to give western operators a run for their money. As it happens, we have a series of articles on just this topic in the latest issue of TT magazine, online now. One important thing: those western carriers are getting cleverer about how manage their operations and services, and more efficient.

WCA fever

2006-06-06T08:55:00.000Z

just back from a week in the Mallorcan mountains, where there are no signs of World Cup fever among the black vultures and booted eagles.

But there's World Communication Awards fever here! The deadline for entries is being extended till 16th June! This hasn't been announced yet - you read it here first...

Euro telco deals

2006-05-26T09:38:00.000Z

Well, Deutsche Telekom this is getting very wild! But if they have 32 billion to spare, frankly it is a
snip. You get 20 bil revenue from year one. You get an NGN, great
skills etc and interconnect with the whole UK telecoms sector and access to UK-based multinational
companies.
Its only 8x what ebay paid for Skype with 0.05 revenue day one.
Remember when DTAG was going to pay 100 billion for Tel Italia!

Digiworld

2006-05-25T14:48:00.000Z

Total Telecom will be helping present Idate's report Digiworld 2006 at a special reception with guest Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of Orange, at Simpson’s in the Strand on 15th June
Idate's brand new UK representatives Colin Forster c.forster@idate.org and Jean-Michel Chapon jm.chapon@idate.org
have invites for very special people if you are one...

Age War

2006-05-25T10:05:00.000Z

Not everyone is persuaded the youth market is the future for telecoms services or any other business. Allan Tumolillo wrote for us about the effect of an aging population on US telcos back in December. National newspapers are catching up.

Congrats, Ken

2006-05-24T14:10:00.000Z

Congratulations to Ken Cukier, chair of the judges' panel in this year's WCA, on his appointment as Technology & Telecoms Correspondent at The Economist. Before, he was a mere Technology Correspondent...

Wireless mysteries

2006-05-19T16:13:00.000Z

BT's results were a welcome boost for a beleaguered telecoms sector this week. Looking forward to working through BT's KPIs this weekend! (http://www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Quarterlyresults/Financialpresentations/q406KPIs.pdf)

We had a nice article about BT's Spanish WiFi hit, which the company is being quite coy about

but so is every operator with hotspots...

I asked T-Mobile what usage they were getting on wireless LANs. They said "We can't give you numbers but traffic increased 300% last year."

I asked BT the same question and they said "We can't give you numbers but traffic increased 400% last year."

Mobile TV

2006-05-17T07:38:00.000Z

Wireless access eh? - not at TeleManagement World anyway...

Mike Short at O2 at least made TMW worthwhile. Interesting comment that while mobile TV trials are encouraging, more "made for mobile" content is needed. Sounds good for filmnight and other content ASPs

New Contenders

2006-05-16T13:01:00.000Z

Just back from a briefing at Ovum. The analysts there have possibly coined an acronym for the new Internet competiton. It is GAMEYs and it stands for "Google, AOL, Microsoft, eBay and Yahoo'

Technology Foresight

2006-05-12T07:46:00.000Z

I always enjoy the provocative Intellectual Capitalist column by Bruce Feirstein in strategy+business from Booz Allen Hamilton. Here's an extract from his latest:

"Take heart in my suspicion that blogging is the new CB radio: for most people, a passing fad. It’s a maw that has to be fed. If sites aren’t continually updated, traffic drops off. You can only repeat the same thing so many times; sooner or later blogging fatigue sets in — for both the blogger and the reader."

read the whole column

Customer care

2006-05-08T10:12:00.000Z

Fascinating release today (Friday 5 May) of a report from Phil Sayer and associates at Forrester describing how service providers should be managing development of converged IT and IP communications for businesses. It's especially interesting on how important self-service portals are becoming to operators. Also, how important it is for service providers to widen their assessment of what a good/bad job they are doing for business customers, to include KPIs, customer satisfaction ratings, TCO reduction and other factors in a "balanced scorecard".

http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,37545,00.html

(registration required)