Latest Blogs
Mobile operators show evidence of positive effects from outsourcing
There was unsurprisingly a large amount of talk at the Mobile World Congress the other week on the effect of the economic downturn on the mobile industry. While the general message from operators was that mobile is more resilient than other industries, the industry’s players will clearly be keen to do as much as they can to keep costs under control. Read more »
The iPhone makes its debut in the Gulf – but high pricing and lack of support for Arabic text might hold it back
Etisalat launched the iPhone 3G in the UAE and in Saudi Arabia in the last week of February. The official release of the iconic device could help raise data traffic and revenues in the region, which are still low by international standards. But the impact of the iPhone could be constrained by two factors: the fact that subscribers have to pay the high cost of the device upfront if they want to get the better-value plans, and the fact that the iPhone does not enable users to read or write text in Arabic. Read more »
Mobile operators get serious about customer data
In one sense it’s no surprise that CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie chose to highlight the fast-growing subscriber data management market at the NSN analyst event at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Read more »
Operators urged to prepare for LTE whatever their deployment plans
Preparations for LTE could help operators get the most out of their current networks while putting them in a good position to profit from next-generation technology, even if large-scale LTE rollout isn’t on their radar just yet. Read more »
Music and content anti-piracy battle cries echo globally
The fight against piracy has spread like wild fire in recent months, so much so in fact that it was top of the agenda in a meeting of heads between China and the EU. But is the industry deceiving itself by holding on to the belief that governments really can make a difference given that the attempt at intervention in the UK has served only to sidetrack the stakeholders from the real issue: discovering new business models. Read more »
Low-cost US operators feel the pinch too
US-based flat rate operators are used to relatively low ARPU from the cost-conscious prepaid segment, but even they are feeling the pinch, as cash-strapped subscribers seek to economize. Read more »
SKT, LGT are right to fear KT/KTF merger
Like the little boy who cried wolf in the old fairytale, South Korean telecoms firms SK Telecom (SKT), SK Broadband (SKB) and LG Telecom (LGT) look like they might finally pay the price for years of crying for help when none was really needed. Read more »
LTE aims for cost-reduction while WiMAX goes back to its roots at MWC 2009
Attendance may have been significantly down on 2008, but there was still enough industry news and technology buzz at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to dispel the economic gloom, at least for a couple of days. Read more »
Developers face pricing and fragmentation quandaries as app-store bandwagon rolls
Application stores are becoming a trend among handset manufacturers and mobile operators, appearing to bode well for application developers, which have traditionally been neglected in the mobile content value chain. But developers are faced with a host of dilemmas regarding pricing and development costs as firms rush to launch their app-store offerings. Read more »
ESPN 360: Not a net neutrality issue, but is it a good business model?
There’s been recent renewed interest in ESPN’s attempts to charge US operators to provide its ESPN 360 online service, mostly prompted by this article in Wired. Read more »
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