NI Deployments [237]: Orange [20+ Subsidiaries] Use Astellia for QoE Optimization

   

Astellia announced that the Orange Group confirmed it as a ".. strategic partner during the presentation of their white paper ‘Supplier relationships of France Telecom-Orange in France’. Over the last 10 years, Astellia’s solution has been used in more than 20 subsidiaries of Orange to optimize the performance of their 2G, 3G and 4G networks and to guarantee the best user experience to their subscribers".

See "Astellia recognized by the Orange Group as strategic partner for network monitoring" - here.

[Wireless Intelligence]: Top 20 Global Operator Groups

    

Wireless Intelligence published its ‘Scoreboard’ operator ranking.for Q2, 2012. "The new ‘Scoreboard’ tracks the top 20 global operator groups by connections based on majority-owned assets in Q2 2012. Minority holdings (less than 50 percent plus one share) are excluded from the analysis".

Compared to the Q2 2011 scoreboard (see "World's Top20 Mobile Groups" - here) - Bharti Airtel (now #4) and Telefonica (#5) switched places.

  

"China’s three mobile operators all recorded double-digit subscriber growth over the last year .. France Telecom (#12) returned to the top 20 after dropping out of the list a year ago".

Source:Wireless Intelligence

See "Analysis: The top 20 global operator groups by mobile connections (Q2 2012)" - here.

Telecom Italia: QoE and OTT Partnership Needed for Mobile Revenue Growth

    

A year ago Telecom Italia's CEO said (referring to OTT content providers) -  "The mismatch between investments and revenue is set to compromise the economic sustainability of the current business model for telecom companies" (here).
 

Back then, this approach was not unique to TI - we heard similar things from DT (here) and FT (here). However, consulting and research firms (e.g. - Analysys Mason - here; ABI - here; Yankee - here) recommended the "if you can't beat then, so join them" approach, and indeed we heard different statements and actions -DT (here) and FT (here) changed their position, and now, TI also presents a different view.

  

Mobile World L!ive reports from Huawei Global  Mobile Broadband Forum 2011 - on Michele Gamberini (pictured), director of Wireless Networks at Telecom Italia presentation:

"..there is demand for reliable, speedy and excellent quality services from smartphone and mobile broadband users .. we in Telecom Italia believe that quality of experience will play a key role in getting more out of mobile broadband .. Delivering a high-quality service to customers will also be one of the key tools in enabling operators to generate revenue when offering content from over-the-top providers (such as YouTube), an issue which has previously been widely discussed by operators .. we have to recognise the traction they create in the market.. [the solution is to] combine our innovation with their services .. We have to provide the whole quality of experience"

   

See "TI sees network quality as crucial to mobile broadband success" - here.

Deutsche Telecom Also Cooperating with Google - Is it the QoS Era Already?

 

After France Telecom CEO clearly sates he is willing to share revenues with Google (here), Reuters reports that Deutsche Telecom is also heading towards an agreement with Google and YouTube.

Jonathan Browning and Matthew Campbell report that spokesman Philipp Blank [picture] said "Deutsche Telekom plans to introduce various levels of connection quality to manage the surge in data traffic and enable high-bandwidth services such as video conferences and tele-medicine.. The Bonn- based company is also tripling the capacity of ports that connect its network with that of Google over the coming weeks to eliminate a bottleneck that slows down service".

A year ago, René Obermann, Deutsche Telecom's CEO said that "OTT providers should pay for High Quality" (here). It maybe still the case, although we saw that FT is willing to do just the opposite.

So the European Telecom giants seem to be pretty sure they can up sell for QoS! Good news for the DPI/PCRF industry!

This also fits the "bottom line" recommendation of Tole Hart (picture), senior analyst, Yankee Group: "OTT providers are taking away TV subscription and voice revenue from service providers. Service providers can use service and applications to improve the customer experience, remain competitive and gain additional revenue .. carriers must rethink how they offer services and applications so they can once again be a key element in the user experience" - see "Creating Customer Value in the Anywhere World" - here.

  

Back to the Reuters story, YouTube in Network Deal Talks With Operators, Manufacturers (here), "Google's YouTube division said it is in talks with all major mobile operators on an agreement to pool efforts to reduce the impact of video content on telecommunications networks" and mentions in addition to the German and French incumbents Telefonica and Vodafone - however without a specific reference of Google cooperation.

Richard Feasey, Vodafone public policy director, explains the network-content provider eco-system (or win-win chance): “You hear the content industry say they struggle to make money with piracy and so on, while we have challenges with the investment requirements versus the revenues Everybody faces a challenge in the long run .. One could imagine services that would allow people not only to get their content closer to the customer but also then to have it delivered faster or with higher quality to the actual device" 

France Telecom - OK, We Will Pay Them .. (Google)

   

After the French government announced that "Google and Foreign OTTs to Pay for Networks Usage" (here) it seems that France Telecom (Orange) is close to reach an agreement with Google et al., in which it will do just the opposite - charge the customers for the content they like (or "+1") so much and pay Google!

Reuters reports that "France Telecom sees opportunities for working with Google and other internet players and thinks they will be open to discussing new ways to generate and share revenue. [FT CEO] Stephane Richard (picture) told journalists [see slide below] on Wednesday that he had talked to Google about a stronger segmentation of access to telecoms networks, making users who want a better service -- a more stable or faster connection -- pay more. In that situation, the two groups could share the extra revenue generated by differentiating levels of service".

See "France Telecom eyeing partnerships with web giants" - here.

Will the French government react the same way the Dutch government did with the provocative initiative from KPN? (here).

Net Neutrality ... French pride .. I expect strike and protests in Paris.

 

 

European Carriers Ask [Again] to Charge Content Providers [Google]

 

Source: FT.com

The issue of peering agreements between the larger content providers (Google et al.) and the major European carriers was raised again (see previous activity below).

Maybe it was recent US conflict between Comcast and Level3 (here) that brought up this issue again in Europe - but anyway the Financial Times reports that "Leading European telecoms companies want to levy significant charges on Google and other online content providers through an overhaul of the regime governing how data travel over the internet .. Operators in Europe complain that they are contending with an explosion of data on their networks, much of which comes from US sites such as Google’s YouTube video service .. The problem for the operators is that while some content providers may be willing to pay for prioritised delivery of their material, Google – a vocal exponent of net neutrality – is unlikely to be among them"


See "Europe telecom groups target Google" - here.

• Elie Girard (picture), France Telecom’s head of strategy said “our current peering agreements are no longer viable. If the Internet is to continue to develop sustainably, we need to set charges linked to the amount of traffic that goes through our networks.”
   
• Telefonica’s chairman Cesar Alierta said: “All the peering agreements are going to change, which means [online content providers] will have to pay for traffic.”

Background: This is not for the first time:

•  "Telefonica CEO: "Google and Yahoo! use networks for free, which is good news for them and a tragedy for us" - here
• Deutsche Telekom CEO: OTT providers should pay for High Quality" - here 
• "French Government: Google and Foreign OTTs to Pay for Networks Usage" -here)

Telefonica CEO: "Google and Yahoo! use networks for free, which is good news for them and a tragedy for us"

 

A story in Bloomberg by Matthew Campbell and Jonathan Browning describes how the fight between the largest European carriers and content providers escalates.

See "Apple, Google Asked to Pay Up as Mobile Operators Face Data Flood" - here and previous quotes from DT,  Vodafone, Telefonica, Swisscom, Kabel Deutschland .

• France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard (picture): “Service providers are flooding networks with no incentive to cut costs.. the explosion of data is good news .. it is, however, a challenge for carriers like us .. raises the question of the business model of mobile data .. We are progressively going to switch from the unlimited approach that has been the trademark of our industry to something which is more sophisticated”
   
• Telefonica SA CEO Cesar Alierta: "Companies such as Google and Yahoo! Inc. “use Telefonica’s networks for free, which is good news for them and a tragedy for us"

• Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabe: (picture)"The mismatch between investments and revenue is set to compromise the economic sustainability of the current business model for telecom companies”
   

And from the other side: “Currently about 40 percent of our expenses go to networks anyway -- servers, peering, our content delivery network, and other resources,” said Giuseppe de Martino, the legal and regulatory director of Paris-based online-video provider Dailymotion SA. “If telecom operators want us to share in their expenses, perhaps we should talk about sharing subscription revenues as well.”

FT Orange CEO: "we have to be more efficient in the network management"

   

Paul Rasmussen from Fierce Wireless reports from the LeWeb conference in Paris on FT-Orange CEO, Stephane Richard presentation (See "FT Orange: 10x more data traffic in two years time, says CEO" - here and video below):
 
".. expected 10 times more data traffic in two years time than seen in its network today .. It's good news: it means that there are new users, and there is an area for growth .. we don't have any problems in terms of managing the capacity today. But clearly we have to anticipate the future ..  in the face of a traffic explosion, clearly we have to be more efficient in the network management, and that will lead us to work on specific plans that will give differentiated access according to quality of service, and probably the period of time in the day or week .. this shift wasn't necessarily about consumers paying more, but about managing the "scarce resource" of bandwidth . Nobody can accept the situation where 10% of people are consuming 70% of the resource"

Orange UK - Tiered Service Plan - Productivity to the Customer and the Network

    

A nice example for tiered service plans comes from Orange UK (now a joint venture of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom) – the new mobile data 9-5 and 5-9 plans for business customers (see press release here). The new plans offer a volume cap of 1GB plus unlimited volume between 9:00-17:00 or 17:00-9:00, Monday to Friday. See details here.

Nevertheless, the service is subject to "fair use" which is currently 10GB per user month - exceeding it may lead to service suspension, bandwidth limitation or moving to a different service plan (here). 

Price differentiation (per month):

• The "Lite" plan (1GB cap) is £7.5
• "Unlimited" is £20
• 5-9 or 9-5 is £10.
• Extra GB is £17 (Orange shows this number in MB. Downloading a 45 minutes TV episode will cost around £10 - be carful when using the laptop outside the unlimited periods!

This is good example of optimizing demand and supply, both in terms of subscription fees and network capacity. Implementation requires more intelligence and policy management compared to the simpler billing schemes.