OTT

UK voice in decline but SMS stays strong in the face of OTT competition

Telecom revenues in the UK market declined in 2011 for the third consecutive year, although mobile retail revenues rose for the first time since 2008. And, while 44 per cent of British adults have now embraced over the top messaging services such as WhatsApp and the messaging applications within social networking services, SMS remains the most popular form of communication for mobile users in the UK. These are some of the headline findings from UK regulator Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2012.

Mobile VoIP ruling a key moment for South Korean Net Neutrality

The decision by the Korean Communications Commission to allow mobile operators to charge subscribers for accessing mobile voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) services from “over the top” providers, such as Kakao Talk, is a defining moment in the country’s net-neutrality debate.

App payments crucial for operators as OTT services erode revenues

Operators are set to see their share of mobile content and commerce revenue drop from 44 per cent in 2011 to 31 per cent in 2016 globally, according to the latest forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media. This is due to services such as mobile messaging, music, TV and video streaming, location-based services and social-networking increasingly going over-the-top in the next five years.

OTT pressure not major threat to SMS

While traditional SMS revenues are under pressure from rich messaging apps such as WhatsApp, iMessage and others, mobile operators will still generate a total of $722.7bn in revenues from SMS between 2011 and 2016, according to research released this week.

Orange Spain CTO makes plea for network sharing

In a frank assessment of the challenges faced by European operators deploying LTE, Eduardo Duato, CTO at Orange Spain, told delegates at this year’s LTE World Summit that operators “can’t make a success of LTE unless we change the way we roll out networks.” Despite the improvements that LTE offers over previous generations of network technology in terms of cost and spectral efficiency, Duato said that operators “have to make a massive investment to make money from LTE.”

Differentiating in a dynamic world

Paul Bultema, executive director, UK and Ireland strategy lead for the communications, media and technology operating group of Accenture, talks about consolidation, differentiation and the rise of over the top services.The opportunities for differentiation in this industry are cyclical. At one time carriers competed on network coverage or price. Today, at the dawn of the […]

VoLTE levels the playing field for operators

Figures from industry body the GSMA reveal that 208 operators in 80 countries are now investing in LTE. But while rollouts aimed at consumers are gaining momentum, a study undertaken by research house mobileSquared indicates that one third of operators have no trials or network deployments underway at the moment.

EU to investigate traffic throttling and blocking allegations against telcos

The European Commission on Tuesday launched an investigation into telecoms providers’ traffic management and competition practices. Responding to allegations that some service providers were effectively blocking over-the-top (OTT) VoIP services such as Skype, telecoms commissioner Neelie Kroes has asked members to probe fixed and wireless operators for evidence of anti-competitive behaviour.

OTT TV viewers swamp IPTV subscribers

Over the top TV viewers will outnumber those watching managed IPTV services from traditional providers by 2015, according to numbers released by Informa Telecoms & Media this week.

Telefónica Spain debuts cloud services from fonYou

Spanish incumbent Telefónica has launched a cloud-based telephony offering, giving users access to a second number and a range of services, including visual voicemail, call registers and advanced call screening. Spanish cloud player fonYou supplied the Online Mobile Telephony platform on which the services are based.

Platforms not services to rule connected home

Platforms that aggregate services rather than any individual device will play the most important role in the connected home over the next five years. Research released by analyst house Informa Telecoms & Media this week predicts that as yet unreleased platforms like HbbTV, Project Canvas and Google TV will play a significant part in the future of the connected home.

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