The Wireless World Research Forum’s latest Outlook white paper “Requirements and vision for Next Generation Wireless” is the first phase of the Forum’s proposal for a future Internet oriented wireless system for the year 2020. The paper describes the type of services that will be supported, e.g. pervasive HD multimedia, and by coupling these with the environment constraints proposes business and traffic models to 2020.
WWRF – Requirements and vision for Next Generation Wireless
October 31st, 2011Analysys Mason – Future mobile network trends
October 31st, 2011Terry Norman’s presentation at Cambridge Wireless event “Is it time to transform the wireless operator business model?” earlier this month noted the drivers of increased mobile data volume, and the technologies that will be required to cope with it. Analysys Mason predicts that mobile data traffic in developed countries will be seven times higher in 2016 compared to this year, despite penetration of mobile devices being almost at saturation. With revenues per GB expected to fall by a factor of three, Analysys Mason has modeled four scenarios by which operators can reduce their network costs to retain profitability.
Yankee Group – Prospects for wirelessly connected devices
October 31st, 2011A recent white paper written by the Yankee Group for 4G Americas, “Mobile Broadband Connected Future: From Billions of People to Billions of Things”, reviews the prospects for connected devices (aka M2M) using 3GPP networks: HSPA and LTE. The paper explains why M2M services are being adopted, reviews the types of applications that benefit from M2M and forecasts connections and ARPU to 2015.
Mobile Broadband Connected Future: From Billions of People to Billions of Things
PwC – 2010 North American wireless industry survey
September 29th, 2011PwC’s wireless industry survey is an annual publication covering the financial and operational reporting
policies and practices of wireless telecommunications service providers. In addition to its focus on financial and operational reporting, the survey includes a wealth of information. Thus the average capex per cell site for small carriers (revenue <$5 bn) was $193K but for large carriers (revenue >$5 bn) was $2.3M. Data on full time staff by functional position show that smaller carriers have proportionally more network/engineering and IT employees than large carriers, who have proportionally more customer care and retail employees.
UMTS Forum – Mobile Traffic Forecasts 2010-2020
August 31st, 2011UMTS Forum Report 44 contains striking data on the demand for mobile data services. One Scandinavian operator recently indicated that the average 3G smart phone user consumed 375 MB/month of data, the average 3G broadband user consumed 5 GB/month, while the average LTE consumer used 14 GB – 15 GB/month of data. The report concludes that total worldwide mobile traffic will reach more than 127 EB in 2020, a 33 times increase. UMTS Forum – Mobile Traffic Forecasts 2010-2020
OECD – Communications Outlook 2011
August 31st, 2011The OECD’s biennial Communications Outlook contains, as usual, a wealth of data on telecommunications and broadcasting industries in OECD countries: markets and spending, policy, network development, pricing and trade. The report includes hundreds of tables and figures, each linked to supporting data online.
Mobile money momentum
August 31st, 2011A trio of reports on mobile payments:
KPMG surveys developments from the viewpoint of the banks in Monetizing mobile: How banks are preserving their place in the payment value chain.
Deloitte highlights the need for cooperation between mobile carriers and financial institutions in their research study Cell me the Money: Unlocking the value in the mobile payment ecosystem.
Booz looks at the broader issue of m-commerce in Mobile Commerce Comes of Age: Collaborate to Succeed.
OECD – Mobile data roaming cost comparison
August 31st, 2011This report follows an earlier report from BEREC that highlighted the disparity between on-net and off-net mobile data costs. The OECD report lists data roaming charges for a series of baskets, e.g. 1 MB in one session, 20 MB use across a whole month, by country of origin of the customer. The variance is considerable: 1 MB in one session costs a Canadian customer six times as much as a Greek customer. The report notes that “There is a strong case for the implementation of measures that seek to empower or protect consumers”.
Accenture – Video-Over-Internet Survey
August 31st, 2011Accenture’s survey of over 6,500 consumers in seven countries (USA, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Spain) highlights the challenge facing fixed and mobile network operators: over 60% are watching TV on the Internet and this proportion is increasing. It’s hardly surprising that consumers number one frustration is the time required to buffer/download/play the video. However network providers may be relieved that only a quarter of consumers are concerned by the increased data costs from downloading video.
VisionMobile – Mobile Megatrends 2011
February 28th, 2011VisionMobile’s latest Mobile Megatrends report identifies the major trends in smartphone end of the mobile market where the profits are moving away from hardware suppliers towards the app stores. It contrasts the world of 2005, where success was measured by number of devices sold, with 2010 where it is measured by the number of apps available, and where time to market is measured in weeks rather than years. A thought provoking report.
