[ABI]: Mobile Internet Services to Generate 45% of MNOs Service Revenues by '19

A new report by Marina Lu [pictured], research analyst, ABI Research finds that "In 1Q 2014, the worldwide mobile service revenue increased 0.58% year-on-year (YoY) to US$264 billion .. the aggregate service revenue for 2014 will grow 2.9% YoY to US$1.01 trillion, mainly driven by the robust growth of the mobile Internet market. 

Proliferating mobile data subscriptions and enhanced network capacity will drive global mobile Internet service revenue to US$456.7 billion by 2019—44.7% of total mobile service revenue. Despite global service revenue growth, the Western European market is declining: 1Q 2014 service revenue declined 5.2% YoY".

"In ABI Research’s profitability analysis, Verizon Wireless beat China Mobile for the first time, carrying the top position for most profitable mobile carrier in aggregate for 1Q 2014, followed by China Mobile and AT&T respectively. Strong growth in retail postpaid subscribers, increased smartphone customer base, enhanced 4G LTE smartphone line-up, and attractive pricing plans have contributed to Verizon’s profitability. In addition, Verizon also moved up one position to second in the ranking for quarterly gross profit per subscriber, at US$77.1".

See "Mobile Internet Will Continue to Drive Mobile Revenues, Contributing to 31% of Global Service Revenue in 1Q 2014" - here.

[ABI]: 10.5M Wi-Fi Hotspots by 2018 to Maximize Coverage

A new report by Marina Lu [pictured], Research Analyst, ABI Research finds that "Worldwide Wi-Fi deployments reached a total of 4.2 million hotspots in 2013, and will continue to grow at a CAGR of 15.0% between 2013 and 2018, to exceed 10.5 million .. The number includes Wi-Fi hotspots deployed by mobile and fixed-line carriers as well as third party operators .. Wi-Fi helps to offload 3G/4G mobile Internet users to Wi-Fi networks, which is a more cost-effective method for both mobile carriers and mobile users.”

In Asia-Pacific, China alone has deployed 620,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, of which 420,000 have been built by China Mobile, followed by China Telecom with 128,000 hotspots, and China Unicom with 72,000. 

In Latin America, Brazil’s carrier Oi [see "Oi [Brazil] Uses Aptilo to Create a Public Wi-Fi over Home/SMB Routers" - here] has completed its target of 500,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by the end of 2013, ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

.. Wi-Fi also represents a good opportunity for fixed-line operators to join in the mobile broadband field. The UK fixed-line operator BT with 200,000 of Wi-Fi hotspots (excl. homespots) is also providing Wi-Fi roaming services to mobile operators and other Wi-Fi providers"

See "Global Wi-Fi Hotspots Will Grow to 7.1 Million in 2015 as a Method to Offload Traffic" - here.

China Mobile: Shared Data Plans; OTT Replaces Voice& SMS

Some slides from the recent China Mobile 2013 Annual results (here).

Highlights:

• >500,000 LTE base stations by the end of 2014
• LTE Tariff build around data, with multi-device shared service plans
• Voice and SMS/MMS revenues decline (-3.4%, -6.5% respectively) in 2013 to OTT services (while minutes of use are up by 3%)
• 767.2M subscribers, 191.6M in 3G
• Mobile data traffic reached 526.8B MB

 

China Mobile Offers Consumers Bandwidth Trading

Tired of trading Bitcoins? Residents of Hong-Kong can sell and buy LTE bandwidth.

Telecom Lead reports that "China Mobile Hong Kong announced a faster 4G LTE network from Hong Kong to Kowloon station will be available by mid-February 2014. 4G LTE coverage will be extended to other MTR stations.

• Through 1cm [see screenshot] app and website, customers can check their data usage balance as well as adjust and pre-set a data usage cap to avoid additional charges. Customers can upgrade their service plan if they discover that their data usage exceeds their plan’s limit".

• Through 2cm app, China Mobile Hong Kong 4G Pro Service Plan customers can buy and sell data. Data can be traded in units of 1GB and each customer can set their own price per unit, between HK$15 to HK$60. Through the 2cm platform, users can check data transaction status, adjust prices and numbers of new orders at any time. The platform will automatically search for, match and notify 4G data sellers once a 4G data buyer is found. Extra data bought from other 4G Pro users can only be used during the same billing month. For each transaction China Mobile Hong Kong will charge data sellers an administration fee of HK$15 for each gigabyte of data from their bills of the following month. Similarly, revenues received from selling the extra data will also be deducted from the following monthly bill payment and fees incurred from additional local data usage. Yet, the remaining amount cannot be carried forward to the next billing month".

See "4G - A New Dream (AND) for China Mobile" - here.

[GSMA] Top Global MNOs - Q1, 2013

GSMA Intelligence published its latest ‘Scoreboard’ operator ranking.

"China Mobile remained the world’s largest mobile operator based on connections and annual mobile revenue – strengthening its lead over second-placed Vodafone - while domestic rivals China Unicom and China Telecom both increased their ranking score from a year ago. China Unicom climbed two places to #5, surpassing Verizon Wireless (#6) and VimpelCom Group (#7), while China Telecom also increased two places to #11, jumping ahead of Deutsche Telekom (#12) and MTN Group (#13)".

See "The top 20 global mobile operator groups by connections and revenue, Q1 2013" - here.

Huawei: New Traffic Management Products and Deployments

Huawei issued a number of press releases related to traffic management solutions:

• Value Growth Solution 2.0 (VGS2.0) - "the company’s second generation traffic management solution, which integrates an operator’s IT & CT layers, offering innovative approaches to boosting user experience and traffic revenue. This solution highly integrates analytic engine, dynamic charging system, PCRF, PCEF and network enabler, shortening TTM via IT & CT orchestration and preset cases. It realizes dynamic policy control and implementation of flexible tariff plans, improving network utilization efficiency by E2E network resources allocation. At the same time, it gives power to the users so that they are able know and control their data consumption in real time".    
  
  "Huawei VGS has been successfully deployed by 150 operators in 60 countries, including China Mobile, MegaFon (Russia - see "MegaFon[Russia] Uses Huawei (and Cisco and NSN) for Traffic Management" - here.), Etisalat (UAE), and Telenor (Norway)"
  
  See "Huawei to Debut Value Growth Solution 2.0 at Mobile World Congress 2013" - here.
   
• Successful completion of trials for its Service Quality Improvement (SQI) solution - "..on networks in Turkey, Belgium, and Spain. Huawei's SQI solution objectively measures network service quality, precisely identifies network quality issues, and realizes quality of service (QoS) improvements.
  Huawei's SQI solution makes a set of KQI definitions that more precisely measure real user experience. With revamped related-analysis methodology, it locates E2E the root cause of a network issue. Compared to traditional network KPI optimization routines, the SQI solution's innovative methods improve voice and data QoS while reducing costs and increasing efficiency".
  
  See "Huawei SQI Solution Shown to Improve Quality of Service on Networks in Turkey, Belgium, and Spain" - here

• Video call quality assurance solution -  "based on a new Flow Priority Indicator (FPI) technology. The solution provides end-to-end quality assurance and charging functions for subscribers of video call service packages, improving user experience and bringing new revenue potential for operators .. Huawei's FPI technology was designed to meet the needs of both operators and subscribers. In scenarios where bandwidth is limited, subscribers who have purchased video call service packages supported by FPI are given a higher priority and can enjoy better video call service quality. Utilizing the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), the solution matches the services subscribers are using with their purchased subscriptions to prioritize limited network resources. FPI also precisely calculates service assurance duration and uplink and downlink traffic, supporting operators for content charging and operation of premium and high-value services".
  
  See "Huawei Launches FPI Video Call Quality Assurance Solution for Operator Revenue Growth" - here.

CEM Deployments [143]: Guangdong MCC [China Mobile] Uses NSN

Nokia Siemens Networks announced that "..Guangdong MCC, China Mobile’s largest subsidiary, has signed a cooperation agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks for the company’s customer experience management (CEM) software and services. The cooperation, lasting over six months, will provide Guangdong MCC with a unified view of its customer data, along with continuous reporting of usage trends to help it improve customer experience".

Recently, NSN together with HP, were recognized by Current Analysis as the leaders of the CEM market (here).

"As part of the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks is providing its Serve atOnce Intelligence (SAI) customer and business analysis suite. SAI aggregates and analyzes data from all kinds of network elements, providing customer insights to help tailor an operator’s customer acquisition strategy and marketing campaigns".

See "Nokia Siemens Networks provides software, services for customer experience management to Guangdong MCC" - here.

Cache Deployments [141]: Wataniya Telecom [Kuwait] Uses Huawei

 
Huawei and Wataniya Telecom announced ".. the successful deployment of Huawei's Internet Cache solution on Wataniya Telecom's Networks Infrastructure .. Wataniya Telecom is able to provide Kuwait's mobile users with an enhanced high-speed Internet experience and a plethora of service applications, while increasing its return on investment through expanded bandwidth and traffic reductions of more than 50%".

See also - "P2P and Video Caching: Huawei iCache Solution" - here.

Hisham Siblini (pictured), CTO of Wataniya Telecom said: "Huawei's Internet Cache Solution enables us to exploit existing network facilities and provide more on-demand services to our users".

Wataniya is the second largest mobile telecommunications operator in Kuwait.

"To date, Huawei's Internet Cache solution has been implemented by world-leading telecom operators such as Wataniya Telecom, M1 Singapore and China Mobile" (see also "Huawei's PCRF Customer list" - here].

See "Wataniya Telecom and Huawei Successfully Deploy Internet Cache Solution in Kuwait" - here.