Digital Lifescapes

Why all the fuss about the Google Voice service? Let me share my perspective. I've been a user since the Grand Central beta launch. It's innovative, a wonderful productivity enhancement tool, easy to configure, and it's free to use with any mobile phone. So, why don't Telcos use their service delivery platforms to create these new offerings? In-Stat believes Mobile VoIP could pose a direct threat to service provider voice revenue. The cost to a mobile subscriber for a minute of voice is at the center of the storm with Mobile VoIP promising to fundamentally change mobile voice economics. The consumer cost of a minute of voice from a wireless operator can be as high as 45 cents. Admittedly, a rate as high as this would be for overage fees above a standard rate plan. Given rate plans, free week-ends, free weeknights, unlimited calling circles and other plan complexities driven by innovative marketing practices, the actual cost per minute to a subscriber is about 5 cen...

Infonetics Research released its Service Delivery Platform (SDP) Software and Integration Services report, which tracks fixed-line and mobile SDP software and integration services. "While the service delivery platform market has not been immune to the current economic climate, operators continue to view SDPs as key investments to ensure continued growth by streamlining how they create and deliver new services," said Shira Levine, Infonetics Research's Directing Analyst. The primary impact of the economy on the SDP market is a more measured and incremental approach to investments, with large-scale multi-year projects being replaced by more focused solutions with shorter implementation intervals. Even so, the SDP market is much less affected by current economic conditions than other communications sectors. Highlights from the Infonetics market study include: - Worldwide sales of service delivery platform software and integration services are expected to double between 2008 ...

Based upon an expected 28 percent increase in 2008, the worldwide broadband service delivery platform (SDP) software and integration services market is forecast by Infonetics Research to top $3.5 billion in 2011. Mobile and fixed line service providers are deploying SDPs, or working with integrators to streamline how they create and deliver new services. The upside for innovation is significant -- for those Broadband Service Providers who dare to be different. Beyond transitioning existing OSS and BSS systems into Web services environments using XML, Java, and BPEL, service delivery platforms are being deployed to help integrate third-party services, especially on the mobile side. These include third-party services such as ringtones, SMS and MMS services, location-based services, mobile advertising, mobile TV services, rating and charging based on individual applications or subscriber parameters -- and social networking services from MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Ning, etc. SDPs decrease ti...

The opportunity for converged (multi-platform) IPTV is explored in MRG's new IPTV infrastructure and service market study -- providing a new road-map for IPTV operators to use in competing with Cable, Satellite and even Internet Video. By categorizing multi-platform services into functional groups including Time-shifting, Place-shifting, Personalization, and Socialization, the MRG report provides numerous examples of what new services may look like on different platforms and regions of the world. "The Millennial generation already expects video, personal communications and messaging services wherever they are, regardless of device or network," said Steve Hawley, Sr. Analyst, MRG, Inc. Operators that aren't transforming their service platforms to serve these digital natives are already at a disadvantage. Over 180 companies and IPTV Operators are featured in this report, including Operators Deutsche Telecom, PCCW, Orange, and many others; plus numerous vendors. Real-wor...

Infonetics Research predicts that worldwide revenue from service delivery platform (SDP) software and integration services will grow at a 23 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the 5 years from 2007 to 2011. Their report confirms that while many SDP vendors are struggling to define and position their SDP products, demand for them by mobile and fixed line telecom service providers is escalating rapidly. SDPs develop, provision, and deploy new subscriber services across wireline and wireless networks by combining discrete services into compound services, reducing the time it takes operators to integrate new services from many months to about 2 weeks, the report says. "Service delivery platforms are fundamental to a telco's future. Without an upgrade to their service creation and provisioning process, telcos will quickly lose revenue to over-the-top Internet content providers (ICPs) like Google and Yahoo, making their enormous transport and access network upgrades obs...

The success of Internet service providers is driving legacy telecom operators to transform their service-layer architectures and business models to extract a bigger share of revenue from the IP services value chain, according to the latest market study by Light Reading. "Telecom transformation started on the infrastructure side with the disruptive development of all-IP networks, originally designed to make operators more competitive with one another," says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Light Reading. "But network transformation unleashed the power of the Internet, spawned a new breed of broadband service providers that feeds off it, and created further competition outside the traditional telecom business. These Internet competitors are now forcing telecom operators to look at business transformation." Vendors have largely defined blueprints to support their broad visions for IT transformation, but they are in a race to build out the complete set of SOA in...

Broadband service providers (BSP) that deploy product data management systems to create telco "service factories" will have a better chance of surviving in a next-generation services environment that will feature tens of thousands of unique services, according to the latest market study by Light Reading. Their report details and analyzes the effects that product data management systems will have on the delivery of next-generation telco services. It explores and outlines how network operators are likely to implement product data management systems (PDMSs), and how the PDMS is likely to be integrated into larger frameworks -- such as service delivery platforms (SDPs) and service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives. "PDMS is emerging as a linchpin application that network operators can deploy to create a kind of automated telco service factory where customers can configure products with the features they want, much as they can customize a computer order online today,...

The worldwide market for telecommunications infrastructure equipment will exceed $109.9 billion in 2011, increasing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2 percent. Network equipment sales to service providers (SP) performed strongly during the first half of 2007 driven by revenue growth from optical transport, broadband access, and routing and switching equipment. However, I believe that the untapped opportunty continues to be providing service delivery platform (SDP) value-added design services to the majority of SPs that need to evolve their legacy business models. "Consolidation of major networks and overall network expansion enabling increased wireless backhaul and video distribution to multiple screens will continue to spur service provider investments on new infrastructure for the foreseeable future," said David Emberley, research manager for Telecommunications Equipment at IDC. That said, perhaps designing compelling user experiences will become the f...

Broadband service providers are migrating to a Web 2.0 service creation environment that borrows heavily from frameworks and processes first developed in the IT sector. However, the pace and direction of that migration is likely to vary widely from company to company, according to Light Reading. The report entitled "SDPs & Service Components: The Web 2.0 Effect" analyzes service delivery platform (SDP) vendors that are providing the foundation level of software service components and examines their strategies for broadening the appeal of these components and associated reuse. "The concept of building systems out of reusable components has a long history in the IT industry, with Web 2.0 application development being the latest manifestation," says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Light Reading's Services Software Insider and author of the report. "This concept is now being adopted by convergence-minded network operators that want to bridge tradit...

As deployments of Telco pay-TV services accelerate around the globe, new questions are being raised about applying the legacy metric of merely measuring viewer and service subscriber counts to determine appropriate advertising fees. According to a Bloomberg News report, Verizon Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. phone company, has been accused in a lawsuit of setting inflated prices for advertising -- by exaggerating the number of subscribers to its FiOS pay-TV service. Verizon overstates subscribers by including prospective customers, not just actual ones, advertiser Digital Art Services Inc. said in a complaint to the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. "Verizon's internal documents show, and Verizon has now admitted, that Verizon has a policy of inflating the number of its reported FiOS subscribers," Digital Art Services said in the complaint. Apparently, Verizon and other defendants in the case told Digital Art Services executives that pending customers are i...

In a sea of multi-play product launch sameness, how can a forward looking broadband service provider (BSP) deliver something truly unique and remarkable for their customers? That's the question that I considered as I prepared my entry for the Cisco Connected Life Contest . Moreover, will real innovation bubble-up to the surface, and see the light of day? I wonder. Regular readers of my columns may recall that I'm eager to offer ideas and suggestions. When I was previously approached by Dell, regarding the introduction of their Idea Storm microsite, I gladly submitted my " Dell Customer Corps " concept for their consideration. Service Delivery Platform Innovation I prefer to avoid the obvious topics, and use my deep-domain knowledge to propose something off the beaten track -- so to speak. That's exactly why I decided to tackle the issue of service delivery platforms (SDP), and more specifically enhancing the consumer experience in a distinctive way. I...

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) services will become the norm after 2010 and will rapidly begin to dominate the world's telecom markets, according to ABI Research. By 2012 almost half of all telecom users will be using at least one SIP-based service, but more than likely will have many services from multiple devices able to communicate with other users and services across the Web and between enterprise and public networks. This will generate over $150 billion in service revenue annually with cumulative infrastructure capital expenditure of over $10 billion by that date. A move to all-IP networks is the chosen path for introducing new services, with next generation networks (NGN) the ultimate goal. "The path to this all-IP goal is complicated: migrating existing services onto IP networks while retaining resources until they can be taken out of service is not a straightforward process," says ABI Research analyst Ian Cox. "Mobile operator voice services are already o...

The rapidly growing Service Delivery Platform (SDP) market, including software and integration services, is forecast to reach $3.5 billion in 2010, according to a new report from Infonetics Research. A growing number of mobile and fixed-line operators are deploying SDPs or incremental services based on existing SDPs to remain competitive with facilities-based competitors, and to stave off competition from Web-based application providers like Google and Yahoo, the report states. Offering new media-rich bundled services like IPTV, video on demand (VoD), video telephony, and fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) is the only way to thrive in the competitive communications environment. All these new services will require significant capex and opex for new hardware components and their integration into existing signaling, OSS, and BSS networks. The solution? According to Infonetics, it's an investment in service delivery platform software and associated integration services. "Getting new...

The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies from the IT world is already having a significant impact on the way that telecom service providers are planning their next-generation service strategies, leading some telcos to rethink the role that IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) will play in next-generation service creation, according to the latest report from Light Reading. "Content providers are emerging as a serious rival to network operators in the next-generation services arena, and they are working to develop competitive services using completely different approaches than those slowly making inroads in the telecom sector," says Caroline Chappell, research analyst with Light Reading's Services Software Insider and author of the report. "Increasingly, the Internet world is becoming a source of over-the-top digital content services using Web 2.0 technologies that have nothing to do with telco standards such as IMS and SIP." If telcos resist incorporating Web 2.0 designs ...

The recent announcement by Comcast that it will trial IP video services later this year using the new DOCSIS 3.0 data networking standard highlights the keen interest many cable operators around the world are showing in the possibilities of IPTV. "The coming integration of IP video services into cable TV infrastructure is the result of a convergence of market forces," says ABI Research vice president Stan Schatt. "The main driver is the threat from the telecom operators, whose IP network configurations are allowing them to offer more dynamic services. As well as moving to IP to counter this threat, the cable operators aim to up the ante by incorporating mobile voice into their bundled offerings as quickly as possible." Another driver for IP video is the need for improved network efficiency and more available broadband spectrum. To offer more services, cable operators need bigger network pipes. Their voice services are already IP, and they're already using IP ove...

TelecomWeb reports that South Korea has assumed the lead in international standardization of IPTV technology, fielding a team of more than 30 experts from Korea Telecom (KT) and LG Electronics at the meeting of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Focus Group on IPTV (IPTV FG) in Bled, Slovenia. The ITU IPTV FG was created just last year to give global standards a boost and to help address the market need for accelerated IPTV deployment. The group held its first meeting in July 2006. The IPTV FG's mission is to define IPTV, to review existing standards and ongoing work, to coordinate existing standardization activities, to harmonize the development of new standards and to encourage interoperability with existing systems where possible. Its scope will include architecture, requirements, QoS, security, network control, end systems, interoperability, middleware and application platforms. The IPTV FG is expected to send standards recommendations to the full ITU organization....

The need to deliver enhanced services over next-generation network architectures will drive worldwide telco operators to increase service delivery platform (SDP) spending to $2.2 billion in 2011. SDPs are a combination of hardware, software, and services that form a common architecture for the creation and delivery of services across multiple network types. However, according to new IDC research, the SDP market remains largely undefined and interpreted differently throughout the industry. "There are tremendous market opportunities for IT suppliers, network equipment providers, independent software vendors, and systems integrators trying to establish their place in this evolving market," said Shira Levine, senior analyst for IDC. "Each type of company faces a unique set of challenges, but the key to success is the ability of these companies to develop partnerships with vendors in other categories." From the carrier perspective, SDPs address the need for faster, easie...