Latest Blogs
The need for a migration path to LTE sounds like surrender for WiMAX, but the technology’s supporters are fighting on
A number of high-profile setbacks in recent weeks have further dented the already weakened
business case for WiMAX Read more »
Connected TVs loom large for pay TV operators, but barriers remain
The pay TV industry has been dreading the arrival of the connected TV, when the TV finally reached out and connected to the Internet, giving viewers access to millions of hours of online-video content – a terrifying thought if you are trying to sell a pay TV service. And facilitating that access are “over the top” Internet players, such as Apple, Google and the major US studios, whose potential market power the pay TV players have long feared.
But the truth is that the OTT players have a huge task ahead of them – especially in Asia Pacific. Read more »
Nokia lowers 2010 guidance again
All is not well at Nokia. The world’s largest handset vendor, which shipped 107.8 million handsets in 1Q10, including 21.5 million converged devices (aka smartphones), announced Wednesday the second downgrade to its expected 2010 financial performance. Read more »
Video-based services look the best bet to drive FTTH take-up, says Tony Brown
Asia Pacific’s FTTH bigwigs met recently to discuss the state of their industry, and the consensus was that, as expected, FTTH will rise or fall on the back of video.
At the 2010 Asia Pacific FTTH Council conference – held May 25-26 in Seoul, perhaps the most heavily fibered city in the world – fixed-line executives from countries as far apart on the FTTH-usage spectrum as Japan and India gathered to discuss the future of FTTH in the region. The discussion focused not only on the progress made by the operators whose executives addressed delegates but also on what the key drivers of FTTH services are likely to be in Asia Pacific in terms of new services. Read more »
Tiered services are a step backward
The dominoes are beginning to tumble. The move toward tiered pricing for mobile data services started by AT&T is spreading, with the news that O2 UK is also abandoning flat-rate subscriptions in favor of tiered services, and more are bound to follow. However, in an age and an industry in which the new focus is on what customers want, rather than what their service providers think they want, it seems incongruous for operators to offer services based on their own needs rather than those of their customers. Read more »
Can Hunt’s local TV plans defy history?
A thriving local television landscape has long been on the wish list of UK politicians but, over the years, success has been elusive. Numerous providers tried and failed to make a go of local TV using cable networks or analog spectrum through so-called restricted services licenses (RSLs). Back in the 1990s two big media groups – the owners of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror national newspapers – tried to make a splash in local television on cable with their respective Channel One and L!ve TV ventures. Despite pioneering concepts – video journalists (Channel One), topless darts (L!ve TV) – both channels flopped. Read more »
No money is changing hands between Facebook and its new operator partners
The recent launch of Facebook’s new text-only mobile website, 0.facebook.com, is a good illustration of the kind of non-commercial relationship that online social networks and mobile operators tend to form. Although 53 operators from 45 countries have agreed to waive browsing charges for 0.facebook.com users for at least a year, they are getting no payment in return from Facebook. No money has or will be changing hands between the social network and its 0.facebook.com operator partners. Read more »
ECTA’s High Speed 2010 conference: Refreshing but still no resolution in sight
I’m no fan of conferences where everyone agrees and leaves with pretty much the same opinions they had when they arrived. In my opinion, such love-ins do the attendees a disservice and have played no small part in driving the telecoms industry down numerous dead-ends over the years. That’s why I found yesterday’s European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) conference so refreshing.
Read more »
UK subscription music revenues to hit £350 million in five years? Surely not
If ever there was a perfect example of a new business model failing to achieve in the real world what looked so good on paper it is the subscription model of music consumption. Gaining access to all of the world’s music for the price of an album (plus a few extra bells and whistles) is a business model that has all the credentials to succeed but has so far failed to deliver. Read more »
Saudicom raises questions about desire for change in KSA
Two days of presentations and panel discussions at SaudiCom clearly demonstrated that there are lots of great ideas about how the world (or the telecoms market in KSA) could be a better place. Black Swan theories, co-opetition, partnership, new business models and all that highly worthy jazz abounded. But I think anybody could be forgiven for taking it all with a large pinch of salt.
Read more »
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