Mobile World Congress

Cisco
Murali Nemani
Senior Director of Marketing for Service Provider Mobility

What is the biggest strategic imperative in 2012 for communications service providers when it comes to mobile broadband and why?

Cisco sees 2012 as an inflection point for the mobile industry. Three pressing issues grip operators and are the central theme that guides our focus. Coverage and capacity are major concerns. How will operators work to offset spectrum limits, and yet address the 18X mobile Internet traffic growth that is projected by 2016? Then there's the coverage challenge, especially in providing strong indoor coverage.

Second, we see traffic growth putting pressure on EBITDA models and overall profitability with a search for providing the lowest cost-per-bit.

Lastly, we see service velocity and new monetization models as a big growth challenge – that is, monetizing services outside of access. These three issues are what bring the spotlight on 2012 as an inflection point for the mobile industry.

How do external factors like the rise of mobile video, proliferating devices and over-the-top (OTT) players offer new challenges and opportunities for wireless operators?

There are three major implications:

1. Unmanaged content hitting mobile networks currently strains precious RAN bandwidth and operators need solutions to manage this more effectively;
2. An explosion in IP endpoints, with a vast majority of devices Wi-Fi enabled, create tremendous opportunities for operators to manage mobile traffic demands;
3. Rich media applications like gaming, premium video or enterprise hosted applications are creating new B2B2C engagement models for monetization.

When it comes to investment, CSPs want to optimize the network and operations while upgrading to grow top-line revenue by supporting new services. What are some innovative ideas for monetizing their business investments?

TV Everywhere is a great example of extending premium video services (IPTV or cable TV) seamlessly across heterogeneous mobile access networks. Carrying over subscriber information, network level QoS and policy information are a great way for seamless experiences to be delivered.

Also, Next Gen Hot Spot is a solution based on the Hot Spot 2.0 specification that brings seamless roaming to Wi-Fi, as we experience in cellular networks. Transcending [log-in requirements for] Wi-Fi networks with the automatic transition of credentials, policy and access between networks is a huge service opportunity.

What impact is the economy having on mobile broadband business models?

Cisco VNI sees that mobile broadband (cellular and Wi-Fi) will account for nearly 54 percent of all Internet traffic by 2015. Mobile broadband will surpass wireline broadband access by this timeframe. We are very bullish in the growth of mobile broadband, as it serves a fundamental need for enterprises and consumers.

What are the biggest trends to watch this year in the wireless service sector?

The growth in small-cell deployments with unlicensed (Wi-Fi) and licensed (femtocells) options to address capacity and coverage challenges [is a top trend].. We also see tiered data plans now being extended to support application-level QoS on-demand, similar to Verizon’s Turbo-Boost application.

What is your favorite experience in Barcelona?

Tapas meals that start at 11 p.m. at night. Who needs sleep?

Genband
Mehmet Balos
CMO

What is the biggest strategic imperative in 2012 for communications service providers when it comes to mobile broadband and why?

We view empowering mobile broadband providers to compete with Over-the-Top service providers as a major strategic imperative for them and for us in 2012.

We are unveiling a range of solutions at Mobile World Congress to do this and have announced several strategic initiatives that unleash the possibilities for mobile broadband providers (see details below).

How do external factors like the rise of mobile video, proliferating devices and over-the-top (OTT) players offer new challenges and opportunities for wireless operators?

The explosion of mobile video across a plethora of devices has significantly benefited OTT provider revenue streams. The good news is this same trend is opening opportunities for wireless operators as well. GENBAND is enabling mobile service providers to universally manage and monetize their voice, data and video services.

For starters, GENBAND has created one of the most comprehensive mobile applications for both smartphones and tablets. Our GENCom mobile client provides users with a complete Unified Communications experience including Instant Messaging/Presence and HD video across Apple, Android and Blackberry mobile devices.

GENCom offers a complete package with GENView Mobile Endpoint Provisioning, marketing assistance via our GENVelocity program and the ability to customize and rebrand to meet market needs. No one else in the market today is providing the user experience or the end-to-end solution like GENBAND.

At Mobile World Congress, we are unveiling Mobile Life, an enhanced Rich Communications Suite (RCS-e)-compliant, feature rich mobile application designed for the consumer market and families ‘on the go.’ Powered by the GENBAND A2 Communications Application Server, this unified communications solution offers mobile operators new revenue generating services while empowering subscribers with a single application that simplifies the way they communicate across devices, including their home and work mobile phones, tablets, set top boxes and computers.

Mobile Life follows on the successful release of GENBAND’s Mobile Office solution, which offers businesses a converged application for the mobile workforce, emulating the office desktop experience for smartphone and tablet users.

When it comes to investment, CSPs want to optimize the network and operations while upgrading to grow top-line revenue by supporting new services. What are some innovative ideas for monetizing their business investments?

Our A2-powered Mobile Life solution described above is a major monetizing tool. But equally important is the behind the scenes optimization required to capture the revenue. At Mobile World Congress, we are introducing one of the industry’s highest throughput Traffic and Policy Management (TPM) platforms, the P-Series P320, with 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE)-capabilities.

By enabling operators to more quickly seize the numerous opportunities offered by the latest in broadband applications and technology and introduce innovative service plans, GENBAND’s P320 creates the ultimate policy control and enforcement platform with highest performance and capacities available.

Powered by the P-Series analytics, customer-defined Virtual Services and easy-to-create billing and service policies on the P-Series Subscriber Manager, these intuitive GENBAND tools enable large service providers to create new revenue-generating service offerings through broadband personalization.

GENBAND’s P-Series allows operators to deliver a premium user experience by enabling each subscriber to create a customized service experience and billing plan that best meets their needs. Broadband personalization allows subscribers to create tailored packages with predictable billing and enables carriers to offer services like content optimization and video caching to capture incremental revenue for providing an improved customer experience.

What impact is the economy having on mobile broadband business models?

I believe the recession’s biggest impact has been to accelerate the corporate adoption of cloud-based services, which are just beginning to transform the opportunities and revenue streams for mobile broadband providers.

We believe monetizing the cloud and new cloud-based services for mobile operators are the fundamental foundation that will drive growth and opportunity in this decade. Our GENBAND GENiUS and A2 Applications platforms uniquely address this economic-driven trend.

Our GENiUS hosted portfolio unleashes the cloud as a foundation for delivery of future applications. This includes Consumer Voice and Multimedia Applications, Business Voice and Multimedia Applications, and Hosted Cloud-based Applications. Our GENCom mobile application explained above allows any wireless device to be used as an extension of your business phone and enables you to reach cloud-based services.

Our employees use GENCom to access all GENBAND unified communications services on a daily basis. We experience firsthand how greatly it improves productivity with tools that otherwise would not be accessible, such as common address books, web collaboration and IM federation. These services can provide much-desired customer stickiness for operators.

Look at the way communications have changed in a few years – from simple talking and letter writing to what is now so many things – tweets, instant messages, social networking, email, voice recognition and video calling. Operators need a vision for effectively blending these services, providing added value, and making it seamless for customers. Our GENiUS A2 helps them get there.

Another growth opportunity in the telecom landscape is network convergence. Operators are looking to reduce costs and increase top line revenue by converging fixed, mobile, and over the top (OTT) domains into a single network. GENBAND products and solutions are focused on enabling this convergence.

What are the biggest trends to watch this year in the wireless service sector?

We think VoLTE is a significant trend to watch in 2012. GENBAND has been active in facilitating VoLTE interoperability and adoption.

Alongside Vodafone and China Mobile, GENBAND and other vendors came together for the GSMA backed MultiService Forum (MSF) Voice over LTE (VoLTE) Interoperability Test Event 2011. We jointly highlighted the significance of the combination of IMS and LTE for the telecommunications industry. The MSF and GSMA have made great strides in working together to validate the standards to benefit the vendor and service provider ecosystem.

Through the A2 Communications Application Server, we tested TAS functions using the ISC interface and successfully executed MMTel services to LTE devices via a third party IMS core. GENBAND also tested the Ut interface directly with the LTE devices for MMTel service configuration.

These efforts are providing an ideal forum to validate core network interfaces that are essential to future multivendor deployment of LTE. We are pleased to have successfully conducted a broad range of strategic tests with our multi-service A2 platform, paving the way for not only core MMTel services for consumers, but also enabling unified communications for mobile business customers. These capabilities are being deployed in today’s mobile networks in advance of LTE rollouts as networks prepare for migration.

What is your favorite experience in Barcelona?

Mobile World Congress has become the biggest event in telecom – so the ability to meet customers from around the globe in one location, in the backdrop of such a beautiful city, with great food and wine is probably my favorite part of the Barcelona experience.

Alcatel-Lucent
John Dillon
Vice President of Marketing for Software, Services & Solutions

What is the biggest strategic imperative in 2012 for communications service providers when it comes to mobile broadband and why?

I think we all need to work together as an industry to change the mentality that this is a commodity business based on capacity at the lowest price-per-bit. The reality is that although price-per-bit is important for basic connectivity services, differentiated service offerings which are value-based, not price-per-bit based, are equally – or even more – valuable to end users and are also fundamentally important to the economics of network capacity expansion. A vital part of this realization I think is the need for application developers and Web service providers to come together with network operators to create this future, rather than staying at arms’ length and working independently.

How do external factors like the rise of mobile video, proliferating devices and over-the-top (OTT) players offer new challenges and opportunities for wireless operators?

Clearly mobile video, over-the-top players and new cool devices have driven the demand for wireless data through the roof. Even using conservative estimates, we see data traffic growing at 50 to100 percent per year. So while I think the challenges are fairly obvious (keeping up with network capacity and performance), we are seeing some interesting opportunities, especially when you think about the unique customer relationship a service provider has with its end user. When I leave my home the one device I absolutely have to take with me is my mobile. I think the key for operators today is to maintain and grow that relationship (starting with a terrific customer experience) and then develop unique applications and new opt-in offers based on that special relationship.

When it comes to investment, CSPs want to optimize the network and operations while upgrading to grow top-line revenue by supporting new services. What are some innovative ideas for monetizing their business investments?

This is certainly a big topic of discussion these days among our global customers. One obvious area that I think service providers will begin to deliver on is cloud services. At the end of the day cloud is all about a huge communications network and in my mind no one can do this better than an operator. I think we will see the first interesting things in the enterprise space and then have that roll out into the consumer realm. I also think another promising area will be mobile commerce and offerings around the mobile wallet and similar applications. We have also seen some traction around opt-in advertising applications based in geo-location information.

What impact is the economy having on mobile broadband business models?

I think the industry will continue to be a ‘mixed bag’ of some great markets and some more challenging markets as global economics will continue to be in flux. But the manifest desire for more bandwidth and ubiquitous, always-on connectivity, driven by devices such as the iPad and ever-smarter video-enabled smartphones, will continue to drive the industry forward, despite the difficult economics.

What are the biggest trends to watch this year in the wireless service sector?

I think that while cloud and tablets were the huge trends in 2011, this year it will be about integrating cloud + tablet + network with an optimized experience while on the go. When you think about it, users only care about their experience and the performance of their device, not about what kind of a network they are on. So I think you will also see more network convergence and less of a wall between mobile and fixed, so lowering costs for operators, creating new opportunities and delivering better performance for all of us!

What is your favorite experience in Barcelona?

MWC is both invigorating and exhausting. MWC is a great melting pot of ideas; it’s an opportunity to network and a chance to strut our stuff on the world stage. At this event you can talk to customers, learn from THE experts, interact with areas of the industry that you don’t normally work with and then go out and socialize with them in a great city.

Ericsson
Arun Bhikshesvaran
Vice President of Marketing and CMO

What is the biggest strategic imperative in 2012 for communications service providers when it comes to mobile broadband and why?

Getting the right combination of devices, network performance and rate plans together. There is no magic bullet on this, and the solution is different for various market segments. The rate plans have to reflect fair-usage principles while allowing for enough experimentation by the customer base. And, device price points need to be attractive enough where more people can be included into the experience.

How do external factors like the rise of mobile video, proliferating devices and over-the-top (OTT) players offer new challenges and opportunities for wireless operators?

A new equilibrium point needs to be established. People on both sides of the equation need to realize and accept that the new reality requires coexistence in the value chain. Wireless operators with the ability to offer excellent Quality of Service (QoS) in terms of speed, coverage and capacity, along with the ability easily integrate with external providers, will have an advantage.

When it comes to investment, CSPs want to optimize the network and operations while upgrading to grow top-line revenue by supporting new services. What are some innovative ideas for monetizing their business investments?

The obvious thing is to get attractive devices into people's hands and attach an optimal data rate plan to it. In other words, earn a basic fee for providing a reliable data service on an attractive device. The integration with 3PP to provide services with better Quality of Experience (QoE) is the next step. A third step could be the exposure of various network assets that would enable other businesses to benefit from such access. We are in the early days of this, and the next 12-24 months will throw more light on the opportunities arising from this.

What impact is the economy having on mobile broadband business models?

It is a little bit of a paradox. Mobile broadband is fast becoming an essential part of everyday life for a lot of people. It appears that for basic mobile broadband services, the economy is not having that much of a negative impact. Of course there is a lot more left to be explored and discovered, and it's a bit early to comment on the mid- to long-term implications.

What are the biggest trends to watch this year in the wireless service sector?

Applications that leverage device capabilities with cloud-based intelligence is an area where we will see more happening. Siri on the iPhone is simply just a first step. Our innovation scans are showing some interesting opportunities out there that take advantage of the camera, location and a fast data connection. Expansion of low-latency, high-speed coverage, such as the ones offered by LTE, will accelerate such innovation.

What is your favorite experience in Barcelona?

Hard to say...there are so many good ones. My favorite is an evening walk in the Las Ramblas area. There is so much activity and good casual food, one could easily spend a couple of hours chilling. Of course, this is difficult to do during the conference...

Nokia Siemens Networks
Kai Sahala
Head of Mobile Broadband Marketing

What is the biggest strategic imperative in 2012 for communications service providers when it comes to mobile broadband and why?

The world is increasingly dependent on broadband. As users access the Internet anywhere and at any time, their usage drives up traffic. This promotes and enables a move to an economy based on digital transactions, but it’s straining the capacity of traditional network architectures.

Demand is becoming highly unpredictable. It’s fluctuating as people use broadband and voice services at home, at work and on the move, and as they switch between services and applications at various times. Margins are also being squeezed as competition heats up.

Yet traditional telco hardware, while in general very reliable, has been fixed in both location and in its ability to support other uses, resulting in networks that are dimensioned to meet peak demand. Like a supermarket-shelf mineral water, the coverage, capacity and services in today’s networks are bottled up – in individual radio cells, in separate core applications and stuck on transport layers.

This is where Nokia Siemens Networks comes in with the development of Liquid Net. Liquid Net breaks through conventional resource limitations to unleash frozen network capacity into a reservoir of resources, flowing to fulfill unpredictable demand, wherever and whenever people use broadband. Liquid Net creates networks that can adapt in an instant to changing customer needs, using existing capital investments more efficiently and generating entirely new revenue opportunities.

How do external factors like the rise of mobile video, proliferating devices and over-the-top (OTT) players offer new challenges and opportunities for wireless operators?

Over-the-top (OTT) providers today offer a rich and diverse range of services, including content, advertising, social media, commerce, VoIP and device platform specific services. The availability of ubiquitous and affordable broadband connectivity has contributed to a boom in the popularity of OTT services which, in turn, has created tremendous growth and innovation in the communications industry. In particular, the increased use of OTT services anytime and anywhere over mobile networks is leading to increased pressures on operators to meet the high expectations of subscribers for a rich customer experience. The rise of mobile video has been spectacular and demanding.

This poses both a threat and an opportunity to mobile operators. Mobile broadband is a growing business and provides opportunities for added revenue such as partnering, content aggregation, etc. On the other hand, users are demanding more than ever a great mobile broadband experience; however, good data coverage is harder to build than good voice coverage and it must be done while keeping costs to a minimum in an increasingly competitive market. Also, unpredictable changes in the network load can occur anywhere, anytime. This may come from a new popular application, a free download that’s now available, or a new operating system version. All can cause huge traffic practically overnight. But networks have not been traditionally designed to cope with this kind of changes.

When it comes to investment, CSPs want to optimize the network and operations while upgrading to grow top-line revenue by supporting new services. What are some innovative ideas for monetizing their business investments?

Networks need to be more sensitive and adaptive to changing demand by being more efficient and more service- and application-aware. This means being able to adapt to the type of traffic being carried in the network and enabling operators to monetize it. Lots of opportunities exist: charging according to user needs and priorities; partnering with OTT players; providing perfect quality for certain applications; or providing applications which can take advantage of the location awareness of the network. All of these can provide new revenue opportunities and make networks more optimized to exact user needs.

What impact is the economy having on mobile broadband business models?

The fluctuating and unpredictable economy brings additional challenges to operators, who are also vulnerable to consumer behavior and consumption habits. This only underpins the importance of making the networks extremely efficient in order to be competitive in the marketplace – not only against other mobile broadband offerings but also alternative models like fixed broadband or WLAN connectivity. The winning formula is to lower costs and optimize networks. This means making them more self organizing with innovations like SON (Self Organizing Networks), utilizing the existing macro networks, sites and hardware to the maximum with software driven evolutions such as single RAN, and embracing small cells with the right business models (e.g., femtocells and integrating WLAN hotspots while exploring hotspot coverage with micro/pico solutions).

What are the biggest trends to watch this year in the wireless service sector?

The industry has been discussing the capacity constraints of macro networks and studying small cell deployments as a cure for providing targeted capacity and coverage where macro networks cannot cope. This is also what Nokia Siemens Networks has been working on. We estimate that by 2020, 10-fold more cells are needed to cope with increasing demand. However, there are a few steps in between. Macro networks can be made more efficient, and operators should exploit the macro networks by further sectorization, active antenna beamforming, technology software feature upgrades, interference mitigation, and other techniques. But, there are still a lot of opportunities along this path. For instance, small cell deployments using femtos provide connectivity in areas where that has been lacking such as WLAN hotspots and holes in urban coverage.

What is your favorite experience in Barcelona?

I don’t have a single experience, but instead a combination of experiences that includes the best tapas bars in the world, nice weather, good atmosphere and a very busy exhibition with lots of interesting discussion and new things coming up every day. But there is the problem of aching feet…

Tellabs
Mike O’Malley
Director of Global Marketing Strategy

What is the biggest strategic imperative in 2012 for communications service providers when it comes to mobile broadband and why?

Service providers are experiencing a huge surge in demand for bandwidth to keep up with their customers’ use of mobile data on smartphones, tablets, laptops and other mobile devices. Their biggest challenge is to grow bandwidth while stopping declines in profitability.

How do external factors like the rise of mobile video, proliferating devices and over-the-top (OTT) players offer new challenges and opportunities for wireless operators?

The changing ecosystem offers service providers multiple avenues to make their networks more intelligent and develop new services and policies to increase revenues.

When it comes to investment, CSPs want to optimize the network and operations while upgrading to grow top-line revenue by supporting new services. What are some innovative ideas for monetizing their business investments?

• Application-based mobile data plans (e.g. fixed fees for social networking applications)
• Enterprise service level agreements (SLAs) for mobile services
• TV Everywhere video packages streamed to connected devices such as smartphones and tablets
• Personalized advertising
• Mobile banking/payments

What impact is the economy having on mobile broadband business models?

Economic uncertainty in the world is causing service providers to be more risk averse and limit new capital projects. Therefore, maximizing existing investments will become even more important to service providers and shareholders

What are the biggest trends to watch this year in the wireless service sector?

• Network-aware applications
• Application-based policies and charging models
• Wi-Fi offload

What is your favorite experience in Barcelona?

I always enjoy spending time in the Spanish sun and warm weather in February.