This edition of Analysys Mason Quarterly contains a digest of the most interesting articles written over the past three months, and covers a wide variety of topical issues in the telecoms, media and technology industries.
It includes insights into services, application platforms, networking technologies, price regulation, government policy and the perils of marketing.
One of the articles draws upon the results of our Connected Consumer survey of 7000 consumers in six European markets – Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the UK – as well as the USA.
Articles in this edition
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Broadband operators should seize the opportunity of government-funded networks
National and local governments worldwide are developing plans to roll out government-owned broadband networks. Such activity could be considered a challenge to commercial broadband operators' businesses. However, commercial broadband operators should treat stimulus from the public sector as an opportunity, and aim to become part of the deployment and operation of the new networks.
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Facebook: 100 billion dollar baby
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is planning to launch an IPO in the spring of 2012 with a USD100 billion valuation, reflecting the company's ability to capitalise on its extensive user base and traffic.
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The costs of regulated wholesale access in legacy and next-generation fixed networks
The costing of fixed access networks is becoming more important to the development of superfast broadband and the achievement of the Digital Agenda for Europe. However, national regulatory authorities (NRAs) face conflicting priorities here, as they seek to maintain proper incentives for operators to invest in next-generation access (NGA) as well as ensure low end-user prices.
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How to make better use of UHF spectrum: use the white spaces, or reallocate entirely?
The potential use of UHF white space technology has been widely discussed during the past 12 months. White spaces are gaps in the spectrum used for digital terrestrial TV within UHF Bands IV and V, where frequencies cannot be used for TV transmission in an adjacent region, without interfering. Because of the large coverage areas of TV transmitters, these gaps may be sufficiently large that they can be re-used for other services.
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Malaysia: a middle-income NGA success, but for whom?
Malaysia's government signed a public–private partnership agreement with the country's incumbent fixed operator, Telekom Malaysia, in September 2008 to build and operate a next-generation high-speed broadband (HSBB) network. The incumbent operator has received government funding without being first structurally separated, which constitutes a major risk for Malaysian taxpayers and for the telecoms sector as a whole.
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Analysys Mason estimates that 30% of M2M connections in 2010 were over fixed networks
The machine-to-machine (M2M) market is often assumed to be the sole domain of the mobile communications service provider (CSP), but fixed networks can account for up to 50% of a CSP's M2M device connections. This article examines the issues, and identifies two categories of M2M solution where we recommend fixed-line connectivity.
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Transformation of the audiovisual landscape with connected TV – a 'frenemies' market?
There is considerable debate in the audiovisual industry about the scale and timing of the impact of connected TV (and more broadly, Internet-based TV), as well as discussion of the way traditional and new players will compete and collaborate.
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IPv6: the story so far
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) announced in February 2011 that its pool of IPv4 addresses was finally exhausted. The doom merchants had pretty much forecast the end of civilisation when this event occurred if we had not already started the transition to IPv6, but in reality life has carried on much as normal. So why has this apparently catastrophic event suddenly become less of an issue?
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Partnership trends for 2012: some answers, and more questions
Operators are excited by the revenue growth opportunity from the adoption of multi-device data services, but the associated cost increases are outpacing revenue growth and challenging profitability. In response, some operators are already adopting transformational partnerships. However, this evolution will raise a number of new strategic questions for operators.
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How to sell 4G when 46% of iPhone 4 users think they already have it
Informing consumers of the benefits of LTE may be a challenge, partly because of misleading marketing as to what exactly constitutes 4G. More than 6% of mobile users believe that they already have a 4G handset, according to the results of our latest Connected Consumer Survey.
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The future of broadband in Europe: implications for investment and industry consolidation
The combination of dramatic traffic growth and slow revenue growth is putting pressure on mobile operators' cashflows. As a result, operators will have to optimise their network costs if they are to generate a return from mobile broadband.
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