Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Y! Alert: Telecom-Funda

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Femtocell market update for week of 23 Aug 2010 Top
"Sprint Airvana" review Cellfanatic (Nick Marshall) has posted a review of the new 3G version of the Sprint Airave , which he dubs the "Sprint Airvana". From Nick's comments, it appears that the device ships in Open Access mode, which has the advantage of simplifying the set-up (by allowing any Sprint phone to gain access without registering it to the Airave's whitelist), but risks the wrath of users who don't like the idea of subsidising Sprint's network coverage for their neighbourhood. The original Airave allowed the subscriber to restrict access if desired, so presumably the 3G Airave supports the same option. Although Sprint has received plaudits for offering the device for free of charge to deserving subscribers (e.g. see Information Week's article " Sprint Does Femtocells Right – Free "), this is actually a misconception. The device itself is free, but there is a $4.99 per month rental charge to use it. A free calling plan can be added for another $10 ($20 for the whole family). Although the 3G Airave is not yet on general release (and has not yet replaced the original Airave on the Sprint website ), Verizon has felt the need to make a response. Company spokesman Thomas Pica confirmed that Verizon plans to sell an EV-DO version of its Network Extender femtocell in the coming months. Meanwhile, there are rumours that Airvana is closing its UMTS femtocell business in order to focus on the less competitive CDMA market, where the company has already seen good success with Sprint and KDDI . Femto news from China The blurb for the upcoming China Femtocell Symposium , says that China Unicom has "completed femtocell trails in Beijing, Sichuan, Hubei, Liaoning and other several provinces", and that commercial service is already available in 12 northern cities. Walt Mossberg reviews AT&T's 3G MicroCell Scarily influential Wall Street Journal tech writer Walt Mossberg has been testing the 3G MicroCell , finding that the device works better in places with the worst network coverage (possibly a bold generalisation from a sample of exactly two locations). "My verdict is that the AT&T MicroCell can, indeed, dramatically improve cellular reception and reliability, but it's not a silver bullet," says Walt. ABI publishes femtocell equipment vendor matrix ABI valiantly compares apples with oranges, pears and elephants in its annual femtocell vendor matrix , and pronounces Ubiquisys the top vendor. Well done to them! This comes on the back of news that SerComm (which manufactures Ubiquisys' femtocells) expects to ship about 500,000 units in 2010 . Strangely, NEC doesn't appear anywhere in ABI's top 10, despite being the solution provider for all of Ubiquisys' femto deployments. Even more strangely, Motorola is in at number 10 despite closing its UMTS femto business last year, and having no apparent success in CDMA femtocells, either. However, with two drivers in the top 5, the Cisco / ip.access combination is looking good for the constructor's championship. Mobile execs signal the end of flat rate tariffs Mobile carriers are saying that they can no longer afford flat rate data tariffs. A survey commissioned by law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer finds 55% of international mobile executives predicting that tiered pricing will become the norm in mature markets. In other news… Zacks says the femto market is gathering steam . Carl Weinschenk says femtocells are making their move . Harish Vadada says the femtocell tide is finally turning . IDC says business FMC is starting to work in Europe . Vodafone launches DLNA-enabled 'dongle dock' device . Hilarious video from Hay Systems . Manish Singh explains CCPU's LTE solution . DSL Reports complains that carriers are intent on sucking all the value out of femtocells . Tagged: Airvana , AT&T 3G Microcell , China Unicom , Femtocell , femtocells , Sprint AIRAVE , Verizon
 
Prepaid Tariffs Back in 1998 Top
Here's a little comparison between prepaid tariffs in Germany back in 1998 compared to 2010. The comparison isn't quite easy as there are so many different tariffs and operators today that you can easily come up with something cheaper but with different strings attached. So this comparison just gives a general idea of how things have moved in a decade. There we go, according to this (very old) article in a "Fokus" magazine back in 1998, prepaid prices in the D1 network were DM 1.99 (€ 1.00) during daytime and DM 0.99 (€ 0.50) after 8 p.m. In the same network today, service providers offer calls for € 0.09 a minute around the clock. In other words, it's 10 times cheaper today (compared to the former daytime tariff) than a decade ago and still 5 times cheaper when compared to the night time tariff.  Equally amazing is the initial price of the SIM card. Back in 1998, the SIM card cost DM 149.- (€ 75,-) with € 25.- of credit on it. And that didn't include the phone. Today, you get a SIM card and a very basic phone for € 10.- with some credit already preloaded. Again, a significant magnitude cheaper then a decade ago. Yes, I know, 9 cents a minute is by no way the cheapest offer on the European playing field anymore. Austria, for example, has prepaid tariffs for 4 cents a minute (example can be found here ).
 
Clearwire Confirms Pay-As-You-Go Plans Top
 
MetroPCS LTE Net May Launch in September Top
Source: Light Reading Las Vegas and Fort Worth, Texas, could be the first cities in the US to get proto-4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) service, as reports today say MetroPCS Inc. will launch its LTE network in September.
 
MetroPCS LTE Net May Launch in September Top
 
Tablet Parade Looks to an Apple Takedown Top
 
Motorola JV Preps App Store for Indian Carriers Top
 
The Cloud and Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Top
 
Telcos: time to stop reporting "subscribers" and start counting "users" Top
Perhaps the singlest greatest block to future growth and success for telecoms operators is their collective insistence on thinking of every customer as a "subscriber". The technology base, the unstated assumptions about business models, the financial reporting, the internal KPIs and the marketing is almost entirely geared towards "subs". Ironically, even the well-known term ARPU is actually really ARPS. Whilst it is absolutely true that subscription-type contracts and prepaid accounts will continue to be important, it is also essential that operators wake up to other ways of engaging. Facebook and Google do not have "subscribers" - they have "users", which may well avail themselves of a variety of services. Magazines have "readers", some of whom are subscribers, others of whom buy a copy on an ad-hoc basis. Train companies have "passengers" who make a number of "journeys" - some of these are season-ticket holders (ie subscribers), others purchase tickets when they need them, others have their ticket prices deducted from a prepaid credit for travel. It amazes me that I'm seeing forecasts for LTE "subscribers" for 2015, as though that is the only way customers might purchase service in five years' time. If I buy a high-end camera with an LTE module in 2015, and use it twice a year when I go on holiday, in no way am I a "subscriber" - especially as I may want to lend it to a friend at another point. If I'm in a conference room where the organiser has provided free in-room LTE for a day, are we all subscribers? Including the projector and printer? Some operators have started to split out M2M connections (mostly because the ARPU is much lower and would drag the averages down). Well done Verizon, for example. But that is only part of the story, as generally even those connections are regularly monthly/annual deals. With the rise of operators' own social network and Internet properties (Orange ON, Telefonica Jajah, Vodafone 360 etc), they will be obtaining a significant user base that do not buy access. Are they subscribers? If they *do* buy access, are they double-counted as both subscribers and users? Add to this the problem of two-sided models, where someone else is paying for a service such as a calling or messaging API, and the definitions get even fuzzier. The bottom line is this: if all you've got is a hammer marked "SIM" then you can only view all your customers as nails. You need a better toolbox.
 

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