A new report by Dr. Holden Windsor [pictured], Head of Consultancy & Forecasting, Juniper Research, finds that "..voice and messaging traffic lost to OTT (Over The Top) players such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype will cost network operators $14 billion in revenues globally this year, up by 26% on 2013 ..in a number of markets, including Italy, Spain and the UK, operator mobile voice revenues

 


SharpStreamer™ PCIE-7207

Artesyn Embedded Technologies announced the "SharpStreamer™ add-on acceleration card that enables content owners, broadcasters and service provider networks to speed the deployment of high density video transcoding and multiscreen delivery.

..Artesyn is targeting the highest H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC transcoding density in the smallest footprint. An Artesyn

A new study by Allot Communications (surveyed the data plans and charging trends of 175 mobile operators worldwide) finds that "85% of operators are leveraging apps to attract customers and increase ARPU .. Facebook is mobile operators’ top choice for zero-rated apps and Unlimited data plans are in decline".


Some examples of Zero rate programs:

Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs 

A new report by Sabir Rafiq [pictured], analyst, ABI Research finds that "The subscriber traffic for mobile broadband services will grow at 36% CAGR for the near future. This is good news for Telecom operators and OTT application providers which are continuously looking to keep subscribers happy and provide a better user performance in spite of network congestion. All of which has the potential

In its annual report (for March 31st, 2014) Vodafone explains that for its consumer business - "Our Vodafone Red plans are now available in 20 markets and we had 12 million customers at the year end. These bundled plans provide our customers with unlimited voice and SMS, and generous data allowances.

We continue to enhance the Red proposition through the introduction of additional features,

Amdocs announced that "TIM Brasil has deployed Amdocs Unified Communications to power its new "blah" service. blah provides an unmatched user experience across all the subscriber's devices centered on a unified address book, merging device and social network contacts. The app saves money for the subscriber and keeps them inside the TIM Brasil brand while they use messaging and communication

Gerald Reddig [pictured], Nokia Solutions and Networks, explains in company's blog why VoLTE is good for MNOs - technically.



"NSN Smart Labs recently tested both client groups, OTT VoIP and VoLTE" and found that in all 4 measured KPIs VoLTE is better:

VoLTE clients consumed approximately 40% less than OTT VoIP clients. 

OTT VoIP clients generated up to 10x more data connections in the

By Shaun McFall*, Senior VP and Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Aviat Networks 



From its early analog origins in the 80s, some of the earliest adopters of mobile telephony were business users. Enterprises were quick to identify the opportunity that “portable telephones” offered. The shackles that rotary dials and fixed landlines placed on business were no more. The enterprise could now

While the Comcast-Netflix agreement is claimed to be Net Neutral ("no preferential network treatment" - here), it seems that the relations with Apple maybe going to challenge Net Neutrality.



Shalini Ramachandran, Daisuke Wakabayashi and Amol Sharma report to the Wall Street Journal that "Apple is in talks with Comcast about teaming up for a streaming-television service that would use an

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

Qwilt announced that "On Telecom, a fast growing leading Brazilian 4G TD-LTE broadband provider, has selected the Qwilt Video Fabric Controller to help solve their over-the-top (OTT) video problem. On Telecom currently faces rapidly increasing network usage resulting from the popularity of its high-speed broadband offering that encourages customers to consume more streaming video from sites like

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

While the relations between Netflix and Verizon are not clear (see "The Post-Net Neutrality Era - Does Verizon Shape Netflix and Amazon?" here and "Netflix Reports Slower Speeds for Verizon" here), the future for Comcast customers looks much better, with no Net Neutrality issues (?). It seems that the bad days ("Netflix CEO: 'Comcast no longer following net neutrality principles'" - here) are

A new report by Anthony Cox, Juniper Research finds that "Mobile network operators will generate revenues of close to $20 billion by 2018 through strategies involving internet based voice or 'carrier OTT' .. These Internet voice revenues will be derived from new service propositions and bundles delivered through partnerships with stand-alone OTT (Over The Top) service providers .. while OTT

Qwilt unveiled the ".. industry's first transparent caching solution for live-streamed events online: Qwilt Live Stream Cache .. enabling the efficient delivery of high-quality live OTT event streaming to broadband subscribers worldwide ..  This uniquely helps service providers scale their infrastructure and optimize the flow of VOD and live video traffic across their networks, while improving

A post by Andrew Burell [pictured], Nokia Solutions and Networks, to the company blog says that "OTT is certainly not a lost cause to MNOs".

" .. [MNOs] see OTT applications such as Skype, WhatsApp and NetFlix piggy-backing on their network investments, clogging up resources and stealing their revenues. The figures themselves are certainly frightening. Every day 2,371 new applications are

TeleGeography reports that "According to new data .. Skype’s international traffic volume continues to soar ..  Skype’s on-net (Skype to Skype) international traffic grew 36 percent in 2013, to 214 billion minutes .. While the volume of international telephone traffic remains far larger than international Skype traffic, Skype’s minutes are growing much more rapidly. Skype added approximately

A new report by David MacQueen [pictured], Director, Media & Apps, Strategy Analytics  finds that "Global expenditure on operator messaging services, which includes SMS and MMS, declined for the first time in 2013 following its peak in 2012 ..  operator revenue from messaging services fell by almost 4 percent last year to just below $104 Billion. Continued intense competition for subscribers

A new report by Joe Hoffman [pictured], Research Director, ABI Research finds that "IMS Core Network deployments are edging up as operators put the necessary infrastructure and capacity in place for planned 2014 VoLTE launches. Spending for the core network products (HSS, CSC, Media Controllers and Gateways, MSF, IBCF, SBC and P-CSCF) integral to a functioning IMS network will reach US$ 4

So, there is a 3rd way - instead of losing customers to OTTs, or build your own (and sometimes fail, such as the case of Telefonica and Tu Me - here), MNOs can outsource such services (e.g. "Bouygues Telecom Deploys GENBAND's fring OTT Service" - here). 



A recent report by Declan Lonergan [pictured], VP, Yankee Group finds that "The growing popularity of over-the-top (OTT) communications