Latest Podcast



Featured Articles

Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

Ofcom says mobile contracts should ditch inflation-related price rises

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom wants to ban inflation-related rises in phone and broadband contracts. Instead, it says any potential mid-contract price rises should be set out in pounds and pence.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Global smartphone market is set for recovery, says new forecast

A new forecast from research specialists Canalys shows the smartphone market is set to recover next year. Worldwide shipments declined by 12% last year but that decline is expected to slow to 5% this year.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

Vodafone and Three plan to merge their UK businesses

New Hutchison/Vodafone network would be biggest UK operator

Vodafone Group plc and CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings Limited have agreed to combine their UK telecommunication businesses, respectively Vodafone UK and Three UK. The merger will create a large new network operator to compete with Virgin Media O2 and EE.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

UK mobile payment service Paym to close in March 2023

UK mobile payment service Paym will close on 7th March 2023. The service, which allowed users to make and receive payments using their mobile phone numbers, was launched in 2014.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Qualcomm legal action moves forward in the UK

Which? seeks payout for Samsung and Apple smartphone owners

Consumer protection organisation Which? has been given permission by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal to represent Apple and Samsung smartphone buyers in a legal case against chip manufacturer Qualcomm.
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
RSS

Opinion Articles

Friday, December 11, 2015

Predictions for 2016: Network Function Virtualisation, 4G throttling and video calling

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016. He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

NFV finds its footing despite industry trepidation

This year, headline-grabbing news such as the TalkTalk hack has served to put the security of cloud-based services into question. Naturally, these questions extend to the use of the cloud and NFV (Network Function Virtualisation) within the telecoms industry. However, despite these concerns, 2016 will be a year of progress for these technologies as operators realise they are invaluable when used within their networks, providing agility, flexibility and the means to innovate their core services.

Jumping on the WiFi-calling band(width) wagon

In 2016, mobile use of video streaming services will push networks to the point where all the extra bandwidth delivered by 4G has been consumed. Consumers will increasingly seek alternative connection via WiFi and mobile operators will be keen to support them. Off-load of voice (and video-call) traffic over WiFi will become more important, and will tend towards a more integrated ‘native’ experience rather than via the use of a separate app.  Within the network, the service-layer equipment that delivers these services will be extended to become access-agnostic; enabling the same service experience regardless of how the subscriber is connected.

Operators go full throttle

Despite impressive 4G data speeds, the rise in bandwidth consumption next year might see some operators put the brakes on. Shortly after the launch of 3G mobile broadband, a number of operators toyed with offering mobile broadband at different prices for different speeds.  Manipulating pricing may help manage demand and offer some upside for revenues, however it will require significant dialogue between operators and regulators in order to agree how this will work. 

This links to the industry’s journey towards 5G and the internet of things (IoT) where the characteristics of the connection, such as peak speed, guaranteed speed and latency will be varied, and charged differently according to service type. Therefore, in 2016 operators will also need to consider flexible implementation of the service control, charging and policy triangle to allow experimentation with various charging models in the near future.

IT giants keep their eyes on the ‘prise

IT powerhouse companies such as Microsoft will continue to win enterprise communication deals at the expense of incumbent European operators. This is because enterprise CIOs will increasingly view communications as another IT service and not a provision exclusively from traditional telecoms operators.

For these IT giants it could be big business, and potentially billions of dollars of lost revenue for mobile operators. In response to this threat, many mobile operators will be looking to deliver a more innovative, tailored range of services to their enterprise customers to keep them from churning.

A global Internet brand will successfully enter the communications market

In an industry that discusses ‘disruption’ daily, it is not often we see a consumer brand upset the telecoms status quo. Arguably, no brand has stepped forward to truly challenge the monopoly of incumbent operators in the UK – yet in 2016 we shouldn’t be surprised to see a major brand step up to the mark.

In the mid-2000s, Disney launched a mobile service in the US; that didn’t pan-out too well, but times have changed. Is 2016 the time for Google Fi to make an impact in the European market, or perhaps Amazon to launch a direct rival service?

Video calling gets the camera rolling

After the first iPhone in 2007 and the rise of 3G mobile connectivity, video calling was supposedly the next big thing in telecoms. Yet, aside from the occasional FaceTime, most people don’t use video calling on their smartphones, and especially not spontaneously – such activity is reserved for planned Skype calls via a computer or tablet (and even then on Wi-Fi, not using a cellular connection).

Voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployments have started and a notable uptick in new deployments is expected in 2016. The technology also includes provision for Video-calling over LTE, sometimes referred to separately as ViLTE. Assuming the dialler on the smart phone is correctly designed, video-calling will be as simple as Apple’s FaceTime – with the ability to add and drop video from regular calls as you go. Moreover, as a standard capability it won’t be restricted to one particular brand’s phone. However, it begs the question of whether it will ultimately acquire the same reach that telephony has today? Probably not: sometimes things are better heard and not seen.

Print
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Rate this article:
No rating

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Recent Podcasts

Mobile industry predictions for 2015, from smartphones to spectrum

Podcast - 17th December 2014

The Fonecast predicts 2015: Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge gather round a sapphire crystal ball and make their forecasts for the next 12 months in the mobile industry.

Whose product line won't survive until December 2015? What will happen with the BT/EE merger? Which new features will be introduced by smartphone manufacturers?

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Mobile industry podcast: new smartphones, new network equipment and new insight

Podcast - 10th December 2014

It's time for another news-packed mobile industry podcast from TheFonecast.com, starting with the European Parliament's latest ruling on in-car emergency communication.

After that we're talking about Microsoft's departure from the Nook eBook business, Three UK's 4G growth, Acer's tablet-sized phone, EE's rural coverage solution and some interesting new research about mobile-enabled customer service.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

Takeovers, break-ups, national roaming, dubious advertising and the death of the landline

Podcast - 3rd December 2014

We begin this week's podcast with updates on two topics we discussed last week: the potential purchase of a UK mobile network by BT - and the crowd-funded Jolla Tablet.

After that we talk about the GSMA's reaction to national roaming, the potential death of the landline, a new threat to Google, management changes and advertising for 4G data.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

BT talks to O2, Nokia and Jolla announce new tablets, Apple Watch developers get started... and Ofcom plans for more mobile capacity

Podcast - 26th November 2014

In this week's podcast we're talking about the potential purchase of the O2 UK mobile network by BT.

We also discuss new tablets from Nokia and Jolla, the end of a patent battle, mobile payments via instant messaging, app development for the Apple Watch and plans to make even more spectrum available for mobile broadband in the UK .

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating

The week's UK mobile industry news, including BlackBerry, TalkTalk, 4G data and much more

Podcast - 19th November 2014

Time for another podcast presented by Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge. They begin this week's programme by talking about the latest enterprise-friendly developments from BlackBerry.

Next comes a new survey from Ofcom about the UK's 4G data speeds, followed by news about TalkTalk's MVNO deal with Telefonica, the growth of WiFi in the home and a report from AVG about social media sapping smartphone performance.

Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Article rating: No rating
RSS
245678910Last

Follow thefonecast.com

Twitter @TheFonecast RSS podcast feed
Find us on Facebook Subscribe free via iTunes

Archive Calendar

«October 2024»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
30123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031123
45678910

Archive

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement