Singapore Takes an Extreme Net Neutrality Regulation

History repeats itself. In 2011, KPN tried to surcharge OTT services, and the result was that The Netherlands adopted a Net Neutrality law (see "Nice try, KPN - Netherlands First European Country to Adopt Net Neutrality" - here).

Last week, during her presentation at MWC, Sock Koong Chua [pictured], CEO, Singtel said she "urged regulators to give carriers like Optus the right to charge rivals such as WhatsApp and Skype for use of their networks or risk a major decline in network investment" (report by David Ramli, to Financial Review, here).

And the result? A very strict Net Neutrality regulation.

Mobile World Live reports that "Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), Singapore’s regulator, has said the country’s mobile operators will not be allowed to block or charge a fee to subscribers who access OTT services .. ISPs are not allowed to block legitimate internet content; neither should they impose restrictions, charges or other measures that will render any legitimate internet content effectively inaccessible or unusable.”

In addition, it said ISPs are not allowed to adopt traffic management practices that will compromise QoS standards or any anti-competitive discriminatory practice what would hurt consumers".

See "Singapore’s regulator warns operators on OTT charges" - here.

Singapore Telcos Plans for Data Monetization: Tiered Services, Music and Gaming

How will operators increase their revenues in 2014? Joyce Hooi, The Business Times, interviewed the 3 telcos in Singapore:

• Kevin Lim [pictured], Chief Commercial Officer, StarHub: "We are primed for data monetisation next year as we expect more customers to adopt tiered data plans".
  
  See "PCRF Deployments: Starhub Selected NSN" - here and "StarHub  Selected Neuralitic for Usage Profiling and Monetization" - here.

• Chua Sock Koong [pictured], CEO, Singtel : "In Singapore and Australia, we are actively promoting data usage, including the use of innovative plans that help customers' avoid bill shocks like Optus My Plan .. In the emerging markets that our regional mobile associates operate in, we are rolling out 3G networks to accelerate data usage"
  
  See "Singtel: 10% of Subscribers Consume 64% of Data; Implements Tiered Services" - here and "Optus Uses Cisco and BroadHop" - here.
   
• M1 - "The telco will bank on mobile games, music and video content to drive data usage, said Chua Hian Hou, its assistant general manager for corporate communications".

See "Data monetisation: Telcos' holy grail in 2014" - here.

PCC/DPI Deployments [217]: Optus [Australia] Uses Cisco and BroadHop

One more Cisco/SCE and BroadHop PCRF joint deployment. A nice variety of use-cases, including 0-rate applications - see a current offer for 3GB plan with free Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn on the right.

At the end of September 2012, Optus (part of the Singtel Group), had 9.5M mobile subscribers - 4.1M prepaid and 5.4M postpaid. ARPU was $AUS23 and $AUS59, respectively. Data was 51% of service revenue, compared to 40% two year earlier.

Optus Tests Connectem to Manage Cell Congestion at Peak Usage

Optus announced that it has ".. begun a trial of cloud-based mobile packet core technology at its Macquarie Park campus (pictured). The technology has the potential to deliver a higher level of network performance for customers during peak usage periods, such as at major sporting events or music festivals. Through a partnership with mobile virtual infrastructure vendor Connectem, Optus aims to rapidly deploy network capacity to address short, intense spikes in network traffic – with customers benefiting from the increased connectivity on their smartphones and tablets".

Connectem was founded by industry veterans in 2011. Its VCM (Virtual Core for Mobile) platform "employs innovative solutions to avoid congestion and signaling storms while high priority users are assured access .. As an example, with VCM software an ‘attach’ request from a device can be processed at least four times faster and thereby improving the overall network's admission rate. Traditionally, data communication is typically user initiated towards the network. As use cases for network to device communication emerge such as M2M communication, today's signaling assumptions will no longer be valid". 

Nishi Kant, CEO, Connectem, said, “Connectem is working with some of the world’s largest mobile network operators and we have been encouraged by the interest in our technology. In Australia, we welcome the initiatives that Optus is taking in the area of cloud-based network infrastructure”

See "Optus conducts world-first trial to tackle network congestion during major events" - here.

Infonetics: Shared Data Plans - an Opportunity with OSS Needs

    

A research paper by Infonetics (commissioned by Tekelec- see press release here) concludes that

"Shared data plans represent a prime opportunity for operators to reduce churn, drive device adoption, and generate more revenue than they have been able to from individual subscriptions—provided they are executed correctly"

Similar view was presented by Sandvine's CTO (here).

 

Infonetics presents "A few public announcements from major mobile operators":  

• Orange Austria, France, Spain: Since Spring 2011, Orange has been offering two devices per data plan, bundling 600 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited BTZone WiFi access, and 2GB shared data across both devices—iPad and iPhone are named specifically as available devices; cost is £99/month at 16GB rate.
    
• Vodafone Ireland offers shared mobile broadband for business users with a 5GB limit, shared across however many users is required, for a fee of €7.50 per connection per month, with each additional increment of 5GB being another €10.
    
• Optus offers a plan connecting five users each on a 4GB shared plan, with 20GB of data pooled between those five users each month; in addition, if the subscriber has a mobile connected to a Business Mobile Advantage plan, she will be able to share even more data across the account.
   
• Rogers Wireless offers various plans: 1GB + unlimited social networking to seven popular sites for $30/month; 4GB + unlimited social networking to seven popular sites for $50/month; options to add an additional 1GB for $15/month or to add voice.

Of course, this doesn't come for free (for the operator) - the OSS has to support this - "solutions such as policy, subscriber data management, charging, and Diameter routing. Flexible, real-time capabilities in the control plane are the key success factor to the successful implementation of these new service models"

Shira Levine, directing analyst, next gen OSS and policy, Infonetics says - "Shared data plans — whether across multiple devices for an individual or across multiple subscribers — demand that operators rethink their operational systems. Service providers cannot offer must-haves like parental controls, time-of-day management and application-based rules without advanced policies and subscriber intelligence".

In order to meet the performance challenges such complex system is facing - ".. the number of signaling transactions increases exponentially .. operators will turn to Diameter routing agents (DRAs) to better manage the onslaught of Diameter messages exchanged among network elements"

The paper "All in the Family: The New Requirements of Shared Data Plans" is available here.

DPI Opportunity: Gilat Wins $120M Contract From Optus for Australia's NBN

The Australian Government announced on 7 April 2009 it would establish a new company to build and operate a new high-speed National Broadband Network (NBN). The NBN will become the single largest infrastructure investment made by an Australian Government, accompanied by historic reforms to Australia's telecommunications sector (see "New National Broadband Network" - here)

In order to cover the whole continent, some of the broadband infrastructure will be based on satellite connectivity. NBN announced that "Optus and Ipstar as interim satellite service providers in regional Australia as part of the National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout. The contracts with Optus and IPStar are worth $200 million and $100 million, respectively" (see "NBN Co signs Optus and IPStar for $300m interim satellite service deal" - here).

 

Gilat VSAT

Gilat Satellite Networks announced that " ..it has been selected by Optus Networks Pty Limited to provide a SkyEdge II Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) network, installation, operation and maintenance for the Australian Government's National Broadband Network Company's (NBN Co) Interim Satellite Service ... The agreement with Optus provides for an initial network of 11 SkyEdge II hubs and 20,000 SkyEdge II VSATs expected to be deployed within up to three years. The agreement stipulates a possible expansion of the network to include hubs and up to 48,000 VSATs ..The agreement represents a potential value of up to $120 million, subject to final design and implementation of the fully expanded network".

See "Gilat to Provide Turnkey VSAT Network and Operations to Optus for NBN Co’s Interim Satellite Service in Australia" - here. Gilat revenues for 2010 were $233M.

Satellite communication was always a clear candidate for DPI based traffic management. Due to the nature of the service physics and the cost and availability of bandwidth, smart, application aware, fairness policies are required for proper QoE. See for example Allot's solution (here) - Optus is an Allot customer (here).

See below the current "Optus Broadband Satellite Offer" (here).