On May 27, we kicked off the 2009 series of Mobile Minute webinars with “Mobile Data Caps: Can Carriers Profitably Control Data Usage?” This event – led by FierceWireless as part of its FierceLive! webinar program – drew 365 registrations and 173 unique live visitors from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the U.S., and Canada.

Webinar panelists included (from left to right below) John Jackson, vice president of Research at CCS Insight and former vice president of the mobile and wireless practice at Yankee Group; Larry Socher, global lead for the Network Offering Group at Accenture; and Adrian Hall, chief marketing officer at Bytemobile.

FierceWireless Executive Editor Lynnette Luna moderated the panel.

John Jackson led off with the assertion that data pricing is a dire concern – ‘flat and getting flatter’. He argued that while dramatic growth in mobile data traffic will continue, network operators cannot profitably grow their data business with the current generation of network technologies. Although many consider Long-Term Evolution (LTE) the ‘default panacea’, it will not meet all of the complex and interdependent functional requirements for keeping up with data demand. According to Jackson, carriers have a ‘long-term identity crisis’ – value-added content provider versus bit pipe – that will require much more than network cost reduction to resolve.

Larry Socher of Accenture addressed future drivers of mobile revenue growth for operators – new data and entertainment applications, convergence and the ‘always connected’ lifestyle of consumers, and interconnectivity of mobile and fixed devices. He stressed the importance of integrated value-added services in customer retention and highlighted the emergence of vertical applications – e.g., on-board automotive – enabled by lower-cost mobile devices with ubiquitous connectivity.

Adrian Hall presented the Bytemobile perspective on the discussion, emphasizing the forces of convergence, personalization, openness, and cost control in moving mobile data forward. He cited a seminal finding of an October 2008 survey of industry senior executives conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit – that charging variable prices for bandwidth consumption at different times of day will be an important future source of revenue for operators – and industry research on the impact of uncontrolled data usage on operators’ profitability. Hall closed with a quick summary of the business benefits of the Bytemobile product portfolio, referencing specific points made earlier by Jackson and Socher.

Lynnette Luna referred to the webinar in an article in the May 28 edition of FierceBroadbandWireless and the June 1 edition of FierceWireless.

Following the panel presentations, Luna took selected questions from the online participants. In addition, the audience was polled on a multiple-choice question, which appears below with a chart of the answers selected by percentage of the total respondents.

The majority selection of differentiated service packaging and pricing provides further validation of the value proposition of Bytemobile applications such as OSN WebGate™ Service and Media Fidelity™ Suite Media Optimization in enabling operators to control and monetize data usage as traffic continues to grow.

Please note that our next webinar – “Making a Better Mobile Browser”, also led by FierceWireless – is scheduled for June 18. You can register here.

-Jaishree Subramania

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As we watch the battle that continues among the different operating systems – Symbian, Windows Mobile, RIM, Palm, Android, and now Apple – and we mull over the rivalry between WiMAX and LTE, are we are getting ready to see the most interesting competition of all – ‘The War of Mobile App Stores’?

The power of the mobile application is well understood. It’s no longer just a ringtone, a wallpaper or a game. Mobile apps have grabbed the attention of consumers and their dollars. A new study from In-Stat projects that the number of mobile app store users will quadruple in the next five years. Already, mobile apps have demonstrated their value as a catalyst for growth in  data services and revenue for carriers.

“The mobile Internet has finally taken off. Now we need to cope with the traffic,” said IDC analyst Scott Ellison.

With its early success, Apple currently leads the app store race. Research In Motion just launched its own app store this week. The handset brands are all building their app stores –Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, et al. Microsoft is expected to launch its applications marketplace later this year. Adobe Systems plans to build a similar marketplace for applications that run on mass-market devices.

However, let’s not forget the most important players of all – the carriers. Around the world, they are delivering value-added services with their app stores while adding value to off-portal traffic.

Everyone is lining up – carriers, handset makers and software companies. On the supply side, the application developers need to gamble and make a few choices. Will carriers ensure that consumers are the ultimate winners?

-Jaishree Subramania

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Today Blackberry officially announced the launch of the Blackberry Storm, positioning it as the first real challenger to the iPhone.  Haven’t we heard that claim at least a half dozen times in the last year? (Samsung’s F700 and Instinct and LG’s Vu and Voyager, for example.) Not surprisingly, the Blackberry Storm addresses user-identified weaknesses of the iPhone with a removable battery, a 3.2-megapixel camera with video capture, cut-and-paste editing features, and built-in picture messaging. The iPhone has yet to really penetrate the enterprise, so the key advantage of the Storm could be Blackberry’s strength with corporate email and security.

What people aren’t talking about with the launch of new high-end, touch-screen phones is the impact these devices have on mobile data consumption and network infrastructure. The Blackberry Storm and the iPhone are great for browsing the web and quickly consuming mobile content, resulting in traffic growth like we’ve never seen before in the mobile space. Research shows mobile data growing at a rate of 10-15% per month for tier-one operators. This rapidly escalating data consumption poses a serious challenge to their network infrastructure.

To cope with the increasing stress on their networks, operators are looking to data caps imposed on users and next-gen technologies such as LTE and WiMAX. These solutions are not entirely viable, as enforced data restrictions are likely to result in subscriber opposition and the deployment of 4G technologies is still years away. In the interim, operators should take steps to improve overall network efficiency and capacity, manage data traffic and ensure the scalability of their network, while continuing to deliver a superior user experience.

Bytemobile solutions offer operators high levels of scalability and traffic control, enabling them to protecting their existing infrastructure investment through smart, adaptive optimization.  Since data traffic expands to fill the bandwidth available for it, the value of optimization is perpetual.

- Stacey Infantino

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