Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
‘Straight to Netflix’ is the latest initiative from T-Mobile USA on its path of disruption. This offers subscribers to its T-Mobile One family plan free subscriptions to the video streaming service with unlimited data – but this is a move that will come at quite a cost to the Uncarrier. New or existing subscribers with two or more T-Mobile One lines (costing $40 a line) can qualify for free, all-you-can-eat Netflix. Disruptive and pro-consumer, definitely; desperate to revitalize growth after being handed its smallest number of phone additions in three years, in the last quarter – perhaps. This takes nothing away from yet another cleverly sculpted marketing strategy. TMO has once again broken the mold, as not many operators in…
Vodafone is calling for the healthcare industry to embrace IoT technology as a way to tackle the single biggest problem that it currently faces – the cost of patients not complying with their prescribed medications, a cost which is counted both in terms of wasted assets, and also future care costs. All the extra data involved is a huge opportunity for the likes of Vodafone, acting as a conduit but also potentially a service provider, but the healthcare industry could be poised to reinvest the savings on new IoT ventures. The figures that the report has found are quite staggering. In the US, poor adherence costs an estimated $290bn each year, according to the New England Healthcare Institute, with the UK’s National…
Sprint’s strategy for virtualization and software-defined networking (SDN) has been less publicly discussed than AT&T’s but has some points in common, including a major inhouse development of a platform which has now been placed in open source, and the use of SDN to shake up its traditional supply chain. The operator has revealed more details of its NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) approach, which – as for many telcos – is starting with a virtualized evolved packet core (EPC). It has also named two of its suppliers, Metaswitch and Mavenir. The vEPC work is based on Sprint’s own reference design, called C3PO (Clean CUPS Core for Packet Optimization), which was unveiled in May and open sourced (hosted by the Linux Foundation)…
The steady move of the telecoms industry towards open source – in software and even hardware – will be challenging for companies which have traditionally turned their inventions directly into revenues and differentiation. One approach is the classic ‘Red Hat’ one of building paid-for added value software and services on an open foundation. Another is to harness an open source platform to become a systems integrator. This is being pursued both by Amdocs in management and orchestration (MANO) of virtualized networks, thanks to its work with AT&T on developing ECOMP, the telco’s software which is now the basis of the open source ONAP (Open Networking Automation Protocol). It is also the route taken by Radisys, once best known for protocol…
The focus, in enhanced 4G and 5G network design, on an increasingly intelligent edge network, makes small cells a critical element of the platform, rather than a useful tactical solution for gaps in capacity and coverage. The major network vendors were once ambivalent about solutions which were – in the initial small cell hype – seen as potential replacements for expensive macrocell deployments. Now times have changed. It is clear that even 5G will still have macrocell build-out, with small cells complementing that to add targeted capacity, extend coverage cost-effectively, and support private sub-nets (see previous article). Also, operators are insisting on an entirely new cost base – if their traditional suppliers do not provide commoditized low cost hardware of…
The issues highlighted in the previous piece about moving AI steadily towards the network edge are part of a wider discussion about where that edge lies; and how it can be pushed closer and closer to the user to support highly personalized services and superior network experience. For the operator, there is a double-edge sword here though. The more that intelligence lives in a device, a gateway or a localized sub-network (an enterprise-controlled small cell cluster, perhaps, in shared spectrum such as the US’s CBRS band), the more it may be exploited by another service provider, not the MNO. The combination of localized AI and context awareness, shared or unlicensed spectrum, and affordable small cells, can finally enable enterprises or…
Vodafone is calling for the healthcare industry to embrace IoT technology as a way to tackle the single biggest problem that it currently faces – the cost of patients not complying with their prescribed medications, both in terms of wasted assets, but also future care costs. All the extra data involved is a huge opportunity for the likes of Vodafone, acting as a conduit but also potentially a service provider, but the healthcare industry could be poised to reinvest the savings on new IoT ventures. The figures that the report has found are pretty staggering. In the US, poor adherence costs an estimated $290bn each year, according to the New England Healthcare Institute, with the UK’s National Institute for Health…
The Open Connectivity Foundation’s (OCF) IoT assimilation continues, with the announcement of a liaison agreement with the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) – which will see the pair work on co-developing standardized approaches for IoT device management. Because many IoT environments will be ad-hoc and dynamic, with devices appearing in an unpredictable fashion, unlike the planned meticulousness of a data center in contrast, there needs to be an efficient way for IoT devices within proximity of each other to easily discover each other and begin communicating. There are practical reasons for this, such as to ensure that communications don’t cause interference with each other, but the most appealing use of this function would be for easier additions and removals from a…
A press release floated past our desk this week claiming that the Kaltura Cloud TV platform is the first to commit to SLAs of 99.995% from the cloud. We should hope so given that Vodafone is a multiple region customer and telcos normally won’t talk to you unless you offer 99.999% uptime. Perhaps the message was more about other systems, such as the one behind DirecTV Now, which have had very public failings from their launch. But it does mean a new version of the platform at Kaltura, which has added features such as a marketing campaign and coupon engine for pushing special offers, personalization and search enhancements, plus a churn prevention toolkit, which measures “happiness scores.” AT&T’s acquisition of…
This week Ericsson, in the run up to IBC, signed a partnership deal with Kudelski’s NexGuard to launch Network ID, a forensic watermarking product for the broadcast industry. It seems a small enough announcement, but for a business which is trying to not spend any money, this is about letting someone else own a key technology, because it is cheaper. In the past Ericsson would have either acquired a business or built a forensic watermarking system itself. But by signing a deal with NexGuard, a sister company to Nagra, Ericsson is almost committing its entire Media division to go down the same route. You don’t want to buy a box which downloads contribution feeds and converts them from say MPEG2…
A mixed set of recent reactions from financial analysts on the future of movie theaters have done nothing but echo the state of disorder facing the cinema industry, as stocks in major chains have fallen off a cliff edge over the last two quarters. Matters look set to get worse still for movie theater owners, as just a matter of days ago rumors circulated that US studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers eying a potentially market-altering movie download service with Comcast and Apple. AMC Entertainment, the largest of the big three US movie theater chains, has seen its share price plummet 45% since Memorial Day on May 28, while shares in Regal Entertainment are down 28% and Cinemark Holdings have…
Straight to Netflix is the latest initiative from T-Mobile US on its path of disruption, offering subscribers to its T-Mobile One family plan free with unlimited data for the streaming service – but one that will come at a quite a cost to the uncarrier. Disruptive and pro-consumer, definitely; desperate to revitalize growth after been handed its least number of phone additions in three years in the last quarter, perhaps. Taking nothing away from yet another cleverly sculpted marketing strategy, T-Mobile has once again broken the mold, as not many operators in the US have been pushing Netflix with the same enthusiasm as those in Europe – but offering it completely free came as an unexpected move, even from a…
Fitbit has launched its first true smartwatch, the $300 Ionic. With support for third party apps, but notably no cellular connection, the Ionic is going head-to-head with the Apple Watch, by aiming to provide a premium user experience, as well as challenging the also expensive fitness-focused watches from the likes of Garmin. Due for release in October, the Ionic will be the most expensive Fitbit device sold to date. While $30 more expensive than the first generation Apple Watch, it is still cheaper than Apple’s second generation design – the one in which the vendor finally nailed the hardware and software to provide a strong user experience. By most accounts, Apple leads the smartwatch market, and so Fitbit has a…
In many countries, operators are demanding that more spectrum is made available quickly, but in India, debt-laden MNOs want to press the pause button on auctions. The established MNOs, such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications (RCOM) are under intense pressure. They have been forced to engage in a price war with disruptive new entrant Reliance Jio (RJio), which has hit recent profits, and they are also involved in a wave of consolidation with RJio’s presence is likely to accelerate (Vodafone is acquiring Idea Cellular while RCOM is engaged in a three-way merger with SSTL and Aircel). With all this turmoil, and their high levels of debt, the last thing they need is another spectrum auction to deplete their…
Two of the big four voice-based, AI-augmented digital assistants have confirmed a tie-up this week, with Microsoft and Amazon announcing that they will integrate Cortana and Alexa. The goal of these strange bedfellows is to provide better access to each platform’s unique features, and looks like an attempt to bridge the gap from the home (Alexa) and the workplace (Cortana). However, that still leaves a gaping void for both, in the shape of the mobile device where Apple Siri and Google Now hold sway, thanks to those companies’ dominance of the smartphone user experience. By contrast, Amazon and Microsoft have both failed in their attempt to create well-used mobile platforms, and are likely to need further partnerships to fill that…
Google has unveiled ARCore, a new software developers’ kit (SDK) and set of tools for building augmented reality (AR) applications for Android. The launch suggests the inevitable demise of Tango, Google’s other AR platform, which labored under hardware requirements with which ARCore appears to be unburdened. Google’s launch is a response to Apple’s ARKit, which was unveiled back in June, and which was well-received by developers. Currently, ARCore is only available in a limited preview form, running on the Google Pixel phone and requiring Android 8.0 Oreo or 7.0 Nougat, or on the Nougat-running Galaxy S8. Google says it is working with Asus, Huawei and LG, to add ARCore to their handsets. Google is apparently aiming to have the SDK…
In the past couple of years, the US has set the pace in seeking new sources of wireless broadband spectrum, and proposing creative ways to harness and share them. None of this comes without controversy, however, as seen last week in two areas where the US has pioneered flexible spectrum sharing – the 3.5 GHz CBRS (Citizens’ Broadband Radio Service) band, and the TV white spaces (TVWS). The latter has not lived up to the high expectations which supporters like Google and Microsoft raised, when the FCC became the first regulator in the world, in 2008, to open up the fragmented spaces in the TV bands for open wireless use. The amount of spectrum available varied greatly between different locations,…
While Qualcomm, Intel and others battle for market advantage based on closely guarded R&D secrets, Facebook is pushing advanced technologies via a range of open source activities. From its OpenCellular base stations to its support for the OpenGL graphics language, the social media giant is keen to shake up the economics of hi-tech platforms to accelerate adoption. This, it hopes, will enable brand new ways of interacting with web services, which it will aim to define and monetize, in the same way that Google defined the current generation of internet usage with its search box. At Facebook’s most recent @Scale event for software engineers, OpenGL was on show as a low cost way to deliver AI-enabled effects and user experiences…
Make sure to subscribe to get ATW in your inbox, for free, each Monday. // M&A, Strategies, Alliances // The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and the Manufacturing Enterprise Solution Association (MESA) have signed an MoU to co-develop IIoT designs and best practices. Qualcomm has joined the IoT Cybersecurity Alliance, founded earlier this year, joining AT&T, IBM, Nokia, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, and Trustonic. // Forecasts, Surveys. Reports, and Blue-Sky Thinking // Navigant says the global revenue for Advanced Intelligent Transportation Systems (AITS) will hit $17.5bn by 2026, growing from $6.6bn in 2017. The global IoT in Oil and Gas market is expected to hit $30.57bn in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 24.65%, according to BIS Research. // Hardware //…