01 July 2010

Another key recognition is that policy itself could be considered to be an asset in the same way that telco capabilities such as voice, presence and location can be considered assets. Moriana research has shown that operators consider a number of capabilities to be key assets:

• User profile information
• Terminal capabilities
• Location and presence
• Mobile access
• Global roaming
• Carrier grade voice

But our recent work in RCS (still in progress) revealed a strong interest in end-to-end QoS and dynamic charging capabilities emerging. In other words, policy determination. Policy enablement will become crucial and should be regarded as an asset which operators can monetise through commercial relationships with application development partners. At TMF, we saw the first signs of this, with new announcements regarding this capability.

01 July 2010

In my taxi from the airport to the centre of Nice, I was quizzed by the driver about the policies of the new British government and the exact political shade it represented. It seemed apposite, then, that one of the main themes of the conference was the emergence of a more sophisticated approach to policy. While not quite a coalition movement (yet), there was a strong sense that the industry is waking up to the fact that policy is becoming a major issue, given the explosion in terms of bandwidth usage. We are currently at the stage of relatively simple policy enablement, such as is required for a particular broadband package, for example, or to monitor fair usage. But, many vendors felt that this is all about to change. It seems likely that differentiated pricing policies are going to become more common - and increasingly sophisticated. What with all the brouhaha surrounding pay-walls, there can be no doubt that paying for differentiated service levels will gradually move to the mainstream, if only because current models are unsustainable.

Whatever the philosophical arguments in favour of net neutrality, there seems to be no logical reason why carriers can't charge for differentiated access to services. At the heart of such schemes will be policy engines to sort traffic streams and identify and allocate appropriate classes. My Internet browsing is not important and is therefore best effort, but your cloud-based video conferencing application is more important and so you pay for a better service, which the carrier must be able to guarantee.

Something has to happen to support the investment required in the networks we need to deliver the applications which hungry consumers and enterprises demand. Why shouldn't people pay more for better service? One consequence of net neutrality taken to its extreme is that the access networks become a natural monopoly, funded out of general taxation or via special levies, like a road network. Of course, that's not going to happen, so there is a clear need for the network provider to make money from their investment. And that means leveraging a consistent policy architecture, with the PCRF at its heart. Watch out for more on this topic in future bulletins.

01 July 2010

So we've brainstormed, created imaginary customers, plotted journeys, sorted cards and we're no doubt inundated with information. Ready for step 2.

At this stage (if we've followed step 1 correctly) we should have a reasonably clear idea of what the site will look like. We should know how roughly many pages we need, the main headings and directory structure, subject headings for each individual page and a rough idea of the preferred routes and funnel for each of our imaginary friends.

So, what's next? Well, if step 1 was fun - interactive brainstorming, workshops and card sorting, step 2 really isn't. It's time consuming work, meticulous and (to be quite honest), it's a little bit dull - but it's the foundation of an effective keyword strategy. It's a process that requires attention to detail and a keen eye - so fire up Excel, this is where the fun begins.

Read more...

07 June 2010

Another year, another bandwagon.

One of the two main themes from the TMF, in our opinion at least, was that of cloud services. The other was policy, but more of that later.

Clouds, it seems, are everywhere. Let's hope they are nice fluffy ones, not threatening storm clouds.

There's nothing new about cloud services - we are really talking about evolutions of the Centrex / hosted model, but with a better taxonomy and more attractive label. But, whether we call such services hosted, XaaS or Cloud-based, it doesn't much matter.

The fact is that many enterprises and service providers are recognising the value of such solutions.

What's interesting is the breadth of such services that are emerging. It's not just traditional services, such as voice and fax, but all kinds of storage and managed back-up solutions. Virtualisation, applications, capacity. In fact, there's little that cannot be included in the definition and many sessions were devoted to this point.

Of course, while for larger corporate customers, the delivery of the full range of cloud services will be a complex task, there are many such services which can profitably be targeted towards smaller companies, something which is still not universally recognised by the bigger players in the industry.

Moreover, a key aspect of cloud services is the fact that non-traditional players can enter the market, leveraging high-speed broadband access networks to ensure reliable service delivery.

While it's too early to say how many of these will be successful, it's clearly going to be fun to watch as both the range of offers increases - and as the industry inevitably decides cloud services are too hyped and begins the usual self-flagellation.