Telco Strategies 2012: Transformation and Strategies For Growth

Telco Strategies 2012
15th Annual Telecom Asia Awards and Executive Conference

April 18-19, 2012 Bangkok
Transformation and Strategies for Growth

The search is on for Asias best-run telecom carriers with the 15th Annual Telecom Asia Awards the regions longest-running and most prestigious telecom industry awards. The 2012 awards include an executive-level conference Telco Strategies 2012 - which brings together leading thinkers from Asias telecommunication operators for knowledge sharing and to celebrate the industry leaders of the past year. The combination of awards and conference makes this the must-attend telco event in Asia.
Official Media
Find more information about the Telecom Asia Awards and Telco Strategies 2012 at
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Organizer
To attend this event: JP Chirayath - jchirayath@questexasia.com +65 6395 4597 Sponsorship opportunities: Gigi Chan - gchan@questexasia.com +852 2589 1338 For information about the Telecom Asia Awards: Joseph Waring - jwaring@questexasia.com
M2M barriers Enterprise opportunity Twisted radio waves Obstacles to consolidation
A s i a n Te l e c o m s B u s i n e s s a n d Te c h n o l o g y
w w w. t e l e c o m a s i a . n e t
Oct/Nov 2011
The biggest trends reshaping the apps sector

Published By
Taking the Next

3G in Vietnam
Vicious price competition makes 3G a commodity
Apps to
Level
Next wave of China vendors
A new class of makers is growing quickly and expanding overseas
Inside:
Billing & OSS Special Report
Contents
Subscribe to Asias best daily telecom news service: Coverstory
Volume 22 Number 9 Oct/Nov 2011
www.telecomasia.net
12 Taking apps to the next level

The apps landscape itself is constantly shifting as devices get smarter and technologies advance to create new capabilities and as old platforms give way to new ones. Telecom Asia looks at the biggest trends shaping the apps business
feature China Vendors
16 Next wave
The booming FTTH market is fueling the next-generation of telecom makers. They are quickly targeting overseas market after finding success at home
M2M
18 Barriers to growth
Regulators in SEA need to step in to remove roadblocks that are slowing M2M growth
Country Focus: Vietnam
12
20 Faster but cheaper

Vicious price competition makes 3G a commodity. Operators need to push back with branding to show value
Billing & OSS special Analyst View: Gartner
24 Narrowing the customer gap

Viewpoint
26 Adapting to business change

Analyst View: KPMG
28 Indias new telecom policy shows vision

Cloud Services
30 Core requirements for IaaS

Columns Tanner
16
20
38
5 No longer virtual
Interactive displays, such as digital signage, will shift peoples behaviors as they go mainstream
Forum
32 Opportunity in the enterprise

Chinas enterprises have been slow to mobilize their applications. Will telcos move in to fill the gap?
Poulos Points
37 More than the sum of its parts

Offering web apps, cloud services and security can be a powerful combination for telcos keen to add value to the pipe
2 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia
37
23
www.telecomasia.net
Managing Director Jonathan Bigelow jbigelow@questexasia.com Firstmile
6 Twisted tech
Researchers boost spectrum capacity by twisting radio waves
Show Report: Asian Carriers Conference
Group Editor Joseph Waring jwaring@telecomasia.net Global Technology Editor John C. Tanner tanner@telecomasia.net Senior Reporter Melissa Chua mchua@questexasia.com Online Editor Fiona Chau fchau@telecomasia.net Art Director Dick Wong dwong@telecomasia.net Production & Web Manager Pauline Wong pwong@telecomasia.net Group Publisher Gigi Chan gchan@telecomasia.net Regional Account Director, APAC Jessie Cheung jcheung@questexasia.com Asst. Sales & Marketing Manager Candace Ho cho@questexasia.com HR & Admin Manager Janis Lam janislam@questexasia.comww Accounting Manager Nancy Chung nchung@questexasia.com Accountant Ivy Chu ichu@questexasia.com Accounting Assistant Cannis Wong cwong@questexasia.com Accounts Clerk Mavis Chan mchan@questexasia.com Circulation & Distribution Director John Lam jlam@questexasia.com Assistant Circulation Manager Allie Mok amok@questexasia.com Senior Circulation Assistant Shipman Kwok skwok@questexasia.com Contributors Canberra: Dylan Bushell-Embling London: Michael Carroll Tokyo: Mike Galbraith Editorial and publishing office Questex Asia Ltd 13/F, 88 Hing Fat Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Tel: +852 2559 2772 Fax: +852 2559 7002 Website: www.telecomasia.net Subscription Hotline: +852 2589 1313 Subscription Fax: +852 2559 2015 E-mail: customer_service@telecomasia.net
34 Whats next? Telcos struggle in search for new revenue streams

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
7 Chinas cellcos look to Europe for growth 8 Regulations hold back move to consolidation in India 9 Long-term impact of Thai floods on supply chains to take weeks to assess
News map
10 Asian telecoms this month

Asia news round-up
regulars
8 Insight 33 Telecom Career 36 Events Calendar 38 Backpage Briefing
SALES CONTACTS
Asia Pacific Gigi Chan Group Publisher, Questex Asia Ltd. Tel: +852 2589 1338 Fax: +852 2559 7002 E-mail: gchan@questexasia.com Jessie Cheung Questex Asia Ltd. Tel: +852 2589 1310 Fax: +852 2559 7002 E-mail: jcheung@questexasia.com Japan Yoshiomi Okamoto EMS Inc. Tel: +81 3 3327 5756 Email : callems@world.odn.ne.jpm North America & EMEA Zena Coup Tel: +44 1923 852537 Fax: +44 1923 839765 Email: zcoupe@questex.com Taiwan Virginia Lee Spacemark Media Services Tel: +886 2 2522 2282 Fax: +886 2 2522 2281 Email: smedia@ms5.hinet.net
Questex Media Group LLC 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466 Tel: +1 617 219 8300 President & Chief Executive Officer Kerry C. Gumas Executive V.P. & Chief Financial Officer Tom Caridi Executive Vice President Tony DAvino Executive Vice President Gideon Dean
TELECOM ASIA (ISSN 1681-181x)is circulated to telecommunications carriers (PTTs) and to the communications departments of businesses, industries and others who use and operate commercial and private networks. It is edited for planning, engineering and operational managers responsible for the design, installation, marketing and maintenance of public or private telecom systems and networks. TELECOM ASIA (USPS 019-325) is published ten times yearly by Questex Asia Ltd, 13/F, 88 Hing Fat Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. All copies distributed in PRC are free of charge. Subscription rates: 1 year HK$480 (Hong Kong only) US$86 (within Asia) and US$96 (outside Asia), 2 years HK$840 (Hong Kong only) US$152 (within Asia) and US$168 (outside Asia). Single/Back issue (if available) HK$50 per copy (Hong Kong only) US$9 (within Asia) and US$10 (outside Asia) plus US$5 handling charge per order. Printed in Hong Kong. Postage paid in Hong Kong. U.S. Mailing Agent : International Mail Distribution Inc, A Division of Security Delivery Service, 52-09 31st Place, Long Island City, NY 11101-3229. Periodicals postage paid at Long Island City, NY. 2011 Questex Media Group LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: 13/F, 88 Hing Fat Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.
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Qualified Circulation: 12,126 Non-Qualified Circulation: 1,833 Source: Jun 2008 BPA Statement
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4th Annual Telecom Asia Readers Choice Awards

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Top 10 handsets
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Get the latest news and trends on China and India the two fastest growing telecom markets in the world China Focus www.telecomasia.net/china India Focus www.telecomasia.net/india
In-depth news analysis, opinion, white papers and case studies for telecom professionals and executives in China http://cn.telecomasia.net
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The inside view from industry execs www.telecomasia.net/industryview
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John C. Tanner
tANNER
The future of multi-screen culture
his months cover story looks at five of the biggest trends, technologies and developments that we believe will influence the evolution of the mobile app as we know it. Due to the usual limitations of time and space, of course, its not a comprehensive list. And one development thats worth expanding on is the concept of the multi-screen experience i.e. the ability to access content regardless of what screen its being accessed from (TV, smartphone, tablet, whatever). We do touch on that a little bit, via In-Stats prediction that, five years from now, tablets will be the primary video device for users even inside the home, and that 60% of both smartphone and tablet users will use those devices to watch OTT video at home. That highlights an interesting shift in the concept of mobile video, which was originally imagined as an on-the-go service, but appears to be morphing into a redefinition of video consumption in the home.
Weve already seen this in markets like South Korea, where mobile TV users watch a lot of their favorite dramas at home, and others use their mobile TV devices as a companion device to the living room screen. Thats now happening in other markets as well, which is why Yoav Schreiber, senior analyst for digital media infrastructure at Current Analysis, recently observed that the biggest multi-screen video market opportunity is heavily focused on delivering video applications and TV experiences for consumption on companion devices in the home, including smartphones, PCs, and tablets. There are naturally challenges to achieving that, particularly in terms of monetization (i.e. how do you package that, and how do you accommodate advertisers?), data caps (because video will eat those up faster than you can say Dont touch that dial) and content protection (oh, you know). But the point is that more and more customers are already accustomed to interacting with multiple screens. And thats going to impact how players across the value chain approach new content services (which is one reason cloud-based content is generating so much
www.telecomasia.net
In-door consumption
buzz at the moment). Another fascinating aspect thats worth highlighting is the emergence of the fifth screen. Digital signage has been touted for a while now as both another potential revenue stream for operators (think: M2M) and a new way for advertisers to interact with consumers at specific locations via technologies like Bluetooth, QR codes, augmented reality or even SMS. But look at digital signage within the cultural context of the multi-screen paradigm, and it becomes something more than an animated billboard or a public TV panel. Jan Chipchase an executive creative director of global insights at frog design, and creator of the FuturePerfect blog has pointed to Seoul as an experiment in this regard, pondering in a recent article how peoples perceptions and behaviors will shift as dynamic, interactive displays become the norm. For example, local discount store retail chain Home Plus launched a virtual supermarket a screen in a subway station that displays life-sized grocery items that customers can purchase online by snapping the QR code of each item. Home Plus says its online sales have gone up 130% since it started trialing the store. Because the service involves logging and tracking consumer purchasing data, Chipchase highlights the privacy implications of this kind of scenario in which Screens will read us; we will not only read them. Thats worth emphasizing within the larger discussion of collecting and securing consumer data. The fact that digital signage servers have been demonstrated to be as hackable as (say) Sony PlayStation network only highlights the point. But the broader point is that interactive digital signage is going to happen anyway indeed, its happening already, from simple things like posting text messages and Tweets to Jumbotron screens to online shopping and AR apps that transform displays into interactive playgrounds. As the technology and consumer behaviors evolve, theres a fascinating opportunity here to incorporate the fifth screen into coming cultural norm of the multi-screen experience.TA
John C. Tanner is global technology editor jtanner@questexasia.com
Look at digital signage within the cultural context of the multi-screen paradigm, and it becomes something more than an animated billboard or a public TV panel
Telecom Asia Oct/Nov 2011 5
first mile
edited by John C. Tanner
Twisted tech could boost RF bandwidth 100x
S TATS N A P
Colocation demand soars in major markets

Demand for colocation will continue to grow at a runaway pace, defying the fragile global economic climate, researchers believe. New data from TeleGeography shows that available colocation space is shrinking rapidly in several major markets. In Washington, DC, for example, only 16% of retail colocation space is currently vacant, with available space falling 36% in the 12 months to September 2011. Vacancy rates fell 26% in London over the same period. Retail colocation providers are scrambling to build new sites to keep up with this demand. Hong Kong providers alone have added more than 400,000 square feet of new space over the past two years. In New York more than 1.3 million square feet of new retail colocation space has been constructed over this time. The majority of the providers surveyed by the research firm including more than 70% in Hong Kong and 80% in Seattle also indicated that they have further growth ambitions. Its unlikely that the pace of expansion will slow anytime soon, TeleGeography analyst Jon Hjembo said. While operators are adding capacity, vacancy rates in a number of metro markets we surveyed remain under 25%.
ts no secret that one of the biggest topics in the mobile broadband sector is spectrum. Mobile operators are not only looking to get more spectrum for LTE particularly in the coveted 700-MHz band but also to get more out of spectrum they already have, hence the growing interest in refarming the 1800-MHz bands for LTE by players like StarHub, Telstra, CSL and Indosat. Theres a number of technological solutions on the horizon to milk as much spectral efficiency out of spectrum as possible, from small cells to advanced MIMO solutions. But a team of researchers in Europe have hit upon something a little more radical to boost capacity in a radio signal by literally giving it a twist. Research led by Italian astrophysicist Fabrizio Tamburini and Swedish physicist Bo Thid claims to have found a way to increase spectrum capacity by twisting radio waves. The twisting part stems from the application of orbital angular momentum (OAM), a century-old discovery which states that electromagnetic fields can transport not only energy and linear momentum but also angular momentum, to radio beams. OAM has already been applied to laser optics, but not to RF technology until recently. As the abstract of the teams research paper explains: We have shown experimentally that it is possible to propagate and use the properties of twisted non-monochromatic incoherent radio waves to simultaneously transmit to infinity more radio channels on the same frequency band by encoding them in different orbital angular momentum states. This novel radio technique allows the implementation of, at least in principle, an infinite number of channels on one and the same frequency, even without using polarization or dense coding techniques. What that essentially means is that its possible to leverage OAM to twist a
radio wave into a vortex, which creates distinctly shaped sub-frequencies that can be used to transmit and receive data without interfering with one another. Result: a potential 100x increase in bandwidth for wireless broadband (although Tamburini says that, in theory, an OAM vortex could generate sub-frequencies to infinity). Tamburini and his team successfully tested the technology in the field in Venice this past June, beaming two radio signals from an offshore island to Piazza San Marco a little under 500 meters away. The next step will be to miniaturize the antenna technology to make it suitable for mobile devices, and also to increase the distance of the signal. That wont be easy, says Brough Turner, founder of wireless mesh ISP netBlazr and former CTO and co-founder of Natural MicroSystems and NMS Communications, who noted on his blog that the researchers twisted their waves by bouncing an RF source off a spiralformed reector. This is a cool experiment but youd need a set of reflectors, one per channel, each with slightly different depths of their spirals to begin making wireless capacity gains, Turner observed. To make this commercially viable, we need an antenna that can create several different orders of vortex in the same physical space. But once thats accomplished, Turner added, the resulting separate channels could be used directly with MIMO electronics and an antenna that fits in limited space, much as 2x2 MIMO systems use horizontally and vertically polarized antennas that fit in the same physical space. Turner said that while we probably wont be seeing 100x wireless capacity gains anytime soon, the vorticity effect could be used to create up to 8x gains within the next decade. This is an area to watch. TA
Vacancy rates drop sharply
Source: TeleGeography
www.telecomasia.net
industry analysis
Chinese operators look west for growth
wo of Chinas leading telcos are boosting their global expansion ambitions through partnerships with leading European operators, but they are focusing on very different areas to achieve those goals. China Telecom is allying with France Telecom in a deal covering IP-based VPN services while rival China Unicom has paired with Telefonicas new digital division to develop global machine-tomachine (M2M) standards. The partnership one of the first by the new Telefonica business primarily covers developing cross-border technical specifications for M2M communications based on jointly produced and maintained platforms. However, it also provides opportunities for the pair to jointly buy equipment, test standards and conduct thorough market analysis. Each carrier will market the M2M platforms to players in markets including smart transport, energy, connected cars and smart cities. The pair may also open the door to additional operators, to boost the global potential of their standards and platforms. Telecoms deal with France Telecom is similar in depth, but covers access to and management of IP-based VPNs for business subscribers in domestic markets, and parts of Africa and the Middle East where France Telecom currently operates. A key element of the collaboration is an agreement to jointly develop networks. The work has the potential to improve links between Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa, with the pair agreeing to explore new terrestrial and submarine cable links between the three continents. Telecom chairman Wang Xiaochu says working with France Telecom is an important part of the companys foreign
cooperation strategy and will help it realize the ambition of servicing customers globally. Wangs ambition is also served by a Wi-Fi roaming element of the deal, which sees France Telecom offer China Telecom customers access to its network of hotspots in Europe and vice-versa. France Telecom chief Stphane Rich-
ard was pleased to have closed a deal with Telecom, noting it is an important step forward, for his firm. Both parties are set to benefit from close cooperation by enabling each other to provide better customer access and services in our respective regions, Richard says. TA Michael Carroll
www.telecomasia.net
industry analysis
India paves road to consolidation
INSIGHT
ONE MONTHS TELECOM RESEARCH
>> Mobile security spend to hit $3b by 2015
fter two years of stagnating earnings and cutthroat competition, consolidation in Indias crowded mobile sector appears all but inevitable, but is being held back by existing regulation. The Indian government is well aware that a 14-operator market is shaping up to be unsustainable, and in October took several steps to facilitate mergers but at the same time threatened action that would make life even more difficult for telcos. The nations Department of Telecom (DoT) published a draft of the New Telecom Policy, a proposed far-reaching overhaul of existing regulations (See Analyst View on page xx). Among numerous changes, the government has suggested doing away with a restriction on mergers if it would result in the number of competing operators in a telecom circle falling below six, proposing instead to base the minimum number of operators on the population in a given area. The DoT earlier suggested introducing an exit policy for newer operators, including a possible mechanism for the government to buy back spectrum licenses for those wishing to give up on the sector. But even as the department moved to help reduce the number of operators, it raised objections to initiatives some operators have taken on their own to address the problems caused by overcrowding. The strong demand for already-in-short-supply 3G spectrum during last years auctions ensured no operator ended up with pan-Indian spectrum. In a bid to address this, major players Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular forged a 3G roaming deal that would allow them to use each others networks in areas where they lack spectrum. But in October, the DoT threatened to object to this deal on the grounds that it may violate license conditions. The operators dispute this, claiming that their permits allow roaming agreements. Operators financial problems would also be exacerbated by a proposal in the New Telecom Policy to scrap inter-circle roaming charges, forcing operators to charge a single rate for calls anywhere in India. Some analysts estimate that operator could lose a combined $400 million in revenue from such a move. The department in October also reportedly sent notices to five major operators Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance and Tata Teleservices accusing them of misreporting revenue to pay lower license fees. The DoT wants operators to pay fees based on revenue figures derived by the comptroller and auditor general of India. All five dispute the charges. TA Dylan Bushell-Embling
Investments in mobile security will reach $759.8 billion in 2011, and climb 44% per year through to 2015. Calanys estimates that only 4% of smartphones and tablets had some kind of mobile protection installed in 2010, but that this will rise to 20% by 2015. Mobile client security such as anti-virus, firewall, messaging security, web threat security, VPN functionality and encryption will outperform the market with an expected average growth of 54.6% per year until 2015. While North America has traditionally led mobile security adoption, due largely to the presence of data compliance regulations, investments in Western Europe are poised to rise sharply. For Asia, Latin America and MEA, the boom will start in 2013. Canalys mobile security analysis www.canalys.com
>> LTE uptake a slow burn
The worlds mobile operators are mostly taking a quiet approach to deploying LTE networks, but as the ecosystem progresses, subscribers to FD- or TD-LTE networks will near 80 million by the end of 2013. As a result of strong operator demand, devices for both flavors of LTE are expected to flood the market over the next few years, ABI Research predicts. This inflow will drive subscriber interest and adoption. Spectrum constraints are influencing LTE deployment decisions in many markets as is the case in Saudi Arabia, where all three operators recently launched TD-LTE services using 2.5-GHz spectrum originally intended for Wimax. Singapores M1 has likewise deployed FDD LTE on the 1.8-GHz band, first slated for 3G usage. 4G subscriber, device and networks market data www.abiresearch.com
>> DPI equipment spend to poised triple
The service provider deep packet inspection equipment market will more than triple from 2011 to 2015, by which time global sales will top $1.6 billion. The runaway growth is being driven by mobile operators eagerness to enable more granular traffic management, and the flexibility to provide tiered or value-added services. To accommodate these demands, analytics on the subscribers services, applications, and behavior will become an integral part of DPI solutions over this period. The market is in for particularly strong growth in APACs emerging markets as operators encounter the congestion issues accompanying rapid subscriber growth. Service provider deep packet inspection products www.infonetics.com/pr/2011/1H11-DPI-Deep-Packet-InspectionMarket-Highlights.asp
>> Mobile VoIP to pose growing threat
Relationships between mobile operators and VoIP service providers are likely to remain frosty through to at least 2016. Juniper Research estimates that smartphone apps will account for four-fifths of the worlds 640 million mobile VoIP users by this time, and partnerships between cellcos and VoIP companies will remain rare. VoIP specialists will instead pursue partnerships within the movers and shakers in social media. Uptake of mobile VoIP services will be faster in the developed markets, as there is a direct correlation between adoption and the rollout of 3G or 4G networks. Mobile voice & video calling www.juniperresearch.com
www.telecomasia.net
Measuring the damage
he floods that have ravaged much of central Thailand have left the countrys industrial estates in ruins. Heavy industry, especially the automotive sector has taken a huge hit with optimistic estimates saying it will be at least three months before manufacturing can resume. The hard drive industry is devastated with Western Digital, the worlds largest drive maker, seeing its Thailand operations now under a sea of mud and water. Toshiba, Canon, Sony, Nikon and a whole raft of other names also have been affected. Even Apples Tim Cook has said that the supply chain disruptions will hit Apple hard. But the real damage will not be known until the often secretive supply chains are exposed as the flood waters finally subside in a few weeks time. One company, Stars Microelectronics, clearly illustrates the nature of the problem as it threatens to derail many highend touch-screen handset shipments. Stars is a specialist in capacitative screens and surfaces, supplying finished touch screen assemblies to the leading handset makers in Taiwan and Korea and even white capacitative clickwheels used in a certain companys music player. Many high-end touchpads for notebooks are also assembled there and more recently have also expanded into toughened glass capacitative screens. The company does not make the capacitative films, nor the circuitry, nor the glass. But it takes the glass from Europe, the capacitative layer from Japan and the chips from everywhere in the world and assembles them into a sub-component that is in turn assembled into a phone somewhere else. The added value in the chain is speed, flexibility and the ability to run smaller batches than would otherwise be the case. Then there are countless Japanese chip makers that have seen their factories and cleanrooms flooded to the ceil-
ing. Many have broken down crying in public, partly out of despair, partly out of anger at conflicting messages from the authorities. One minute the Prime Minister was reassuring investors that the industrial estates would be protected, the next people were running for their lives as a wall of water bore down on them.
The outlook is not good. Some of the worst hit universities have postponed the beginning of term until the end of November and even that may be optimistic given the scale of repairs needed. On the other hand, the lack of information, squabbling politicians and general mistrust of media has led to a boom in social network usage and cellular traffic as people shun government propaganda and instead turn to rely on new media and first-hand accounts from Facebook and Twitter. Frost & Sullivan has said that Facebook growth, originally forecast at 132% year on year, will increase to 150% because of the floods, making Thailand the third fastest growing Facebook country after India. Currently 17% of its population of 65 million is on Facebook. Leading telco AIS has seen traffic jump by 70%. Traditional copper infra-
Come back in a month
structure has not fared well under the onslaught of water, but the cellular networks have proven quite resilient. AIS has lost only 67 of its 13,000 base stations as of the last week of October. If anything, the redundant networks among the three major operators, borne out of mistrust and inability to share infrastructure rather than by design, has managed to keep most of the flood victims connected. Once the flood waters recede, the question is, what will be rebuilt and how will the global tech giants reassess risk planning in this day and age of global warming and extreme weather patterns? And what of planning the nextgeneration networks? Thailand has, like many other countries, been moving toward a national broadband network for backhaul, run by the incumbent state enterprise telcos. Cynics say that is because successive governments are quoting national security concerns as an excuse to create a monopoly on backhaul and milk the industry now that the visible retail sector will soon need to be liberalized. But would this crisis change the minds of her leaders to a more distributed, if more expensive, series of redundant networks? Or will the next natural disaster leave everyone cut off in the dark? TA Don Sambandaraksa
www.telecomasia.net
asian telecoms this month

Beijing Huawei is blocked from bidding for another US tender this time for a public safety network due to alleged national security concerns. The US ambassador to the WTO, meanwhile, calls on China to explain its criteria for blocking access to some foreign websites, raising concerns about censorships impact on international competition. China Telecom and France Telecom strike a VPN and Wi-Fi sharing deal while China Unicom and Telefonica team up for M2M. ZTE moves to sell its controlling stake in Congo-Chine Telecom to Orange, to divest the distraction from its core infrastructure business and avoid competing with its own customers.
Hong Kong PCCW Solutions wins a $46.5m deal with the Social Welfare Department to replace the aging Computerized Social Security System.
Bangkok Severe flooding in Thailand disrupts fixed broadband networks and threatens to do the same to the component supply chain, but mobile networks stand up remarkably well. Delhi The telecom ministry unveils its proposed new telecom policy, including a plan to scrap intercircle domestic roaming charges. The ministry blocks Qualcomms petition for an ISP license to accompany the BWA spectrum it paid $1b for last year, but later reneges after Qualcomm challenges the decision.
AIS puts the final touches on plans to offer roaming services to its customers through stateowned TOTs 3G network.
The dispute between Norways Telenor and JV partner Unitech over the management of GSM operator Uninor escalates. ZTE confirms it has won a deal for part of a TD-LTE rollout by Bharti Airtel, but the operator is rumored to be planning to divide the remaining deals across multiple vendors.
Dhaka Telenor disputes a $400m tax bill from the government arising from a dispute covering subsidiary Grameenphones revenue share on the sale of SIM cards.
www.telecomasia.net
movements
Seoul KT is revealed to be in the final stages of talks to acquire a 20% stake in South Africas Telkom for around $582m. Tokyo KDDI reports a 4.8% gain in Q3 profit, but this is not enough for the operator to revise its forecast of a 2% decline for the full year. z The iPhone 4S initially disappoints pundits with its similarity to the prior model but goes on to shatter Apples own launch-weekend sales records. z The 3GPP industry body 3G Americas claims that the next evolution of HSPA could push the peak theoretical transfer rate up to 336 Mbps. NTT Com is said to be planning to invest close to $1.6b to expand its cloud computing capabilities outside of Japan. z Apple succeeds in stymieing Samsungs plans to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, as Samsung is said to pip Apple as the top-selling smartphone vendor in the previous quarter. z Nokia swings to a pre-tax loss of over $200m, as an increase in low-end phone sales fail to make up for a continued steep decline in smartphone sales. Sydney Telstra shareholders reluctantly accept an $11b deal with the government to phase out the operators fixed-line wholesale business and migrate its fixed-line customers to the NBN. Commonwealth Bank plans to introduce an NFC payment service for Android and iOS devices, integrating an NFC chip into special cases for phones that lack an internal one. z Ericsson reports marginally higher profit for the third quarter and higher sales, but its cash flow plummets due to its underperforming JVs. z Sony buys out Ericssons half of Sony-Ericsson for $1.5b. z RIM is hit with a three-day messaging service outage that at various times affects parts of the US, Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East. z Chipmakers Sequans and Fujitsu Semiconductor forge an alliance to develop LTE baseband chips with multimode 2G/3G/LTE RF transceivers. z The GSMA estimates that the APAC mobile market will be worth $447b by 2020, accounting for the lions share of the worlds $1.2tr market. Kuala Lumpur P1 becomes Malaysias third operator after Celcom and Maxis to sign a deal to offer services on Telekom Malaysias open-access HSBB network. Mumbai Struggling state-owned BSNL asks to be let out of its mandate to deploy Wimax except in rural areas in a market due to be dominated by TD-LTE. z In another long-term prediction, Gartner suggests that tablets could replace smartphones as the go-to device for consumers to have in their pockets in five to ten years. z Fitch Ratings cuts its outlook on two Italian operators Wind and Telecom Italia as the countrys debt woes seep through to local businesses. z The Mobile Entertainment Forum claims that more consumers access mobile internet services on a daily basis than browse on fixed-line connections. z Yahoo takes aim at the feature-phone market in emerging Asian nations with partnerships to embed its internet services into mobile chipsets bound for the devices. z Virgin Media commences a trial of 1.5-GHz broadband using new cable access technology from Cisco, suggesting the war between cablecos and telcos for subscribers is heating up. z Texas Instruments provides a lower than anticipated forecast for Q4 sales, in an indication that the chip industry is still facing financial problems. z Google indicates it may complement its 1-Gbps fiber network pilot in parts of the US with a similar trial in a European country. z IBM picks sales head Virginia Rometty to become the companys first female CEO in its 100-year history.
Singapore M1 and Verizon Business complete a two-year joint fiber rollout project in northern and western Singapore.
Manila Conglomerate San Miguel arranges to pay around $35m to up its stake in Eastern Telecom to a controlling 78%, from an effective 40%. PLDT buys a controlling stake in mobile rival Digitel in a deal worth around $1.6b, after finally convincing regulators to accept the deal by offering to give up 10-MHz of spectrum.
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cover story
Taking apps to the next level

Demand for mobile apps shows no sign of letting up over the next five years, but the apps landscape itself is a work in progress, constantly shifting as devices get smarter and technologies advance to create new capabilities and as old platforms give way to new ones. Telecom Asia looks at the biggest trends shaping the apps business, from tablets and mobile OS developments to web apps and augmented reality. John C. Tanner
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More coverage of
Mobile Apps
Mobile OS landscape
The goalposts keep changing for developers. Also, even Alibaba has one now
he fragmented mobile OS landscape that apps developers must navigate is in flux, as existing OS platforms are being combined and even abandoned and new ones keep popping up. This year alone weve seen HP abandon its WebOS platform, while both Nokia and Intel have abandoned the MeeGo OS project. Intel is now backing Tizen, a new open-source OS from the Linux Foundation and the LiMo Foundation that recycles some components of MeeGo and is based on the Samsung Linux Platform that LiMo uses for its open-source mobile OS. Meanwhile, speculation about the fate of WebOS and the possibility of companies like Facebook and Amazon taking it over highlights the desire by content-driven companies to gain more control of the mobile OS platform rather than ride on top of someone elses. ABI senior analyst Aapo Markkanen says Facebook needs its own OS because of the growing ubiquity of mobile social networking. A huge problem for Facebook is that while on the web it is a platform, on mobile its just another application. Other web players are already doing just that. In July Chinas Alibaba Cloud Computing unveiled its own cloudbased mobile OS dubbed Aliyun OS as well as the first device that will run on it, the K-Touch Cloud-Smart Phone W700. Aliyun supports Android apps, web apps and cloud services such as email, search, weather updates and mapping/navigation tools, though the ultimate goal for Alibaba is to develop a smartphone strategy for its e-commerce business. Also in July, Mozilla revealed plans to develop an OS called Boot to Gecko, which will be based on the Gecko en-
gine that drives its Firefox browser. Development projects for Boot To Gecko include new web APIs linking OS and device capabilities like text, cameras, Bluetooth and NFC chips to content. The good news is that there is some unification of sorts in progress, most notably Googles Android 4.0 a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich which brings the smartphone and tablet versions of Android into a single version. By creating a single version of Android, Google is making it easier for developers to modify their apps and take advantage of the larger screens of tablets, which should stimulate the creation of apps designed for Android tablets, Nick Dillon, devices and platforms analyst for Ovum, said in a research note. RIM has done something similar with the recent launch of its new flagship BBX platform, which merges the BlackBerry 7 smartphone OS with the QNX OS for its PlayBook tablets. BBX will support BlackBerry cloud services
and both native and HTML5 developer environments, as well as BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps. The bad news for developers, says Ovum chief telecom analyst Jan Dawson, is the adoption of QNX across the entire line in the coming months and years also means that RIM is leaving its traditional BlackBerry developers high and dry. Dawson says existing developers will have no choice but to start from scratch with an entirely new development environment.
A huge problem for Facebook is that while on the web it is a platform, on mobile its just another application
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cover story
Web apps
HTML5-enabled cloud apps wont kill native apps or kill app stores
ative apps are the de facto format for the current apps boom, but thats expected to change with the development of web apps apps hosted in the cloud that run on the browser and, thanks to features within the HTML5 standard, can function like native apps even when the device is offline. Indeed, web apps are at the heart of Googles long-term mobile ambitions so much so that its commission fee for apps developers is a paltry 5% (compared to Apples 30%). The appeal of web apps is dead simple: theyre OS-agnostic, which means apps developers can reach a much broader base of users without having to write separate apps for
iOS, Android, BlackBerry, WP7, Bada, LiMo, etc. How broad? Lets put it this way: according to ABI Research, over 2.1 billion mobile devices will have HTML5 browsers by 2016, compared to 109 million last year. Even though the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says the HTML5 standard wont be finished until the end of the decade, 25 HTML5 features currently in development will be in wide use within the next three to five years, says ABI senior analyst Mark Beccue. We expect HTML5 features in categories such as graphics, multimedia, user interactions and data storage to be widely adopted sooner rather than later. But that doesnt mean web apps
will be competing with those platforms, or with native apps in general, Beccue adds. HTML5 adoption is going to accelerate because it will be a key differentiator in the smartphone OS war. I believe that Apple will be the key driver of HTML5 and consequently a primary benefactor as well. Ovums Nick Dillon adds that the rise of web apps wont spell the end of either native apps nor the app storefront model. App stores offer a familiar environment for consumer to discover, download and purchase apps, and we anticipate that the majority of app stores will list a mix of both HTML5 and native applications in their catalogues in the future.
Apps for feature phones

2.3 billion feature phones in 2016 = major apps opportunity
he apps phenomenon has been limited to smartphones, and more recently tablets, for fairly obvious reasons. But for all the talk about increasing smartphone adoption as lower-priced models hit the shelves, feature phones will remain the largest handset segment for some time. Ovum forecasts the number of feature phones worldwide to reach 2.3 billion in five years, which will account for 63% of the market. Thats a huge untapped market for apps developers limited to smartphone OSs, and demand is such that Ovum predicts the feature-phone apps revenues will top $1 billion by 2016. Part of that growth will come from larger handset manufacturers, operators and third parties offering improved distribution channels for feature phones, which have been lacking until recently,
says Nick Dillon of Ovum. Also, developers will leverage existing software options like JavaME, Nokia web widgets and Opera Mini widgets to develop simple web apps before moving on to HTML5 as more feature phones ship with compatible browsers (see above). Meanwhile, theres the ongoing work of the WAC (Wholesale Applications Community), which opened shop in February with eight operators and 12,000 apps. WAC is creating APIs aimed at runtime environments and browsers with the goal of building an OS-agnostic wholesale storefront, ecosystem and billing platform that can bring feature phones into the apps ecosystem. WAC has been quiet since its February launch. But last month, WAC CEO Peters Suh said in a blog post that a number of WAC member operators in Asia are on track to launch services in
Q4 2011 across a range of devices and a number of application storefronts. Suh also said that WAC is developing its suite of operator supported network APIs (starting with in-app payments), which are currently being implemented by a select number of developers with the aim of opening this up to a wider audience over the coming months. Suh said WACs network API service offering would be available in early 2012. WACs network API for in-app payments is well-timed. According to app marketplace analytics firm Distimo, inapp purchases account for a whopping 72% of iPhone app revenues (compared to just 28% a year ago). Close to half of those in-app payments were via free apps. More remarkably, less than 5% of all iOS apps even offer in-app purchases.
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Augmented reality
Today: cool but glorified QR codes. Tomorrow: gesture recognition UIs
ugmented reality apps that use a mobile devices sensors, GPS chip and camera to overlay interactive computer graphics over the real world is easily the sexiest apps category. AR is still in its infancy ABI estimates that users downloaded six million AR apps last year, just a fraction of the nearly eight billion downloads in 2010. But ABI is projecting close to a billion AR downloads and $3 billion in global revenues in 2016. AR is already being used for a wide variety of apps, from games and navigation to advertising and marketing. There are even security-related AR apps under development a recent Juniper report says that counter-terrorism may become the highest profile area of AR deployment, citing a trial with Logica and the UK gov-
ernment to incorporate location tech and video recognition tech into AR apps for security service handheld devices. Meanwhile, AR technology is already evolving beyond its current status as a gaming novelty or a snazzier version of QR codes. UK based software company Autonomy has developed its own gesture-recognition feature for its Aurasma AR app for iPad 2, iPhone 4 and Android smartphones. Rather than tapping the device screen to interact with AR graphics, users can reach in front of the device and interact with the graphics in AR-space similar to using a Kinect console. For example, an AR soccer game can cast you as the goalie, allowing you to wave a hand in front of the device to block soccer balls being kicked at
you. While gesture recognition may sound gimmicky when used on a smartphone, its also been touted as a crucial step in moving AR apps from smartphones which is still a bit clumsy, as smartphone AR requires users to hold the device in front of them all the time to glasses enabled with wireless connectivity. Qualcomm which released its AR SDK earlier this year is also developing a gesture-based user interface for devices that enables apps to be operated by waving a hand over the display. Qualcomm chief Paul Jacobs demonstrated the technology for the first time at the companys annual developer event in Istanbul, telling Telecom Asia it should be ready to roll in the second half of 2012 or early 2013.
The tablet effect

Tablets bring mobile video back; Kindle Fire puts content front-and-center
ablets represent another playground for apps developers to come up with new apps that work better on a bigger tablet screen than on a smartphone, particularly video apps. A recent In-Stat study found that half of tablet owners use them to watch TV shows and featurelength films. That figure will pass 85% in five years, at which time nearly 60% of smartphone/tablet owners will also be viewing over-the-top video at home, says In-Stat research director Keith Nissen. Tablets, in particular, have become a primary video device, both inside and outside the home, Nissen said in a research note, though he adds that doesnt mean users will stop watching videos on smartphones. In fact, theyll expect to access video content across all devices, including the living room TV set.
As these devices become a centerpoint for video engagement and consumption, content providers, device manufacturers, and operators need to support a multiscreen usage model that reflects social interaction, screen interaction, personalization, and mobility. Unsurprisingly, the iPad remains the king of the tablet hill, with other tablet vendors struggling to match Apples ecosystem, although Android collectively has taken 20% of the tablet market from Apple in the past year. The latest tablet to generate iPad-killer hype is Amazons Kindle Fire, unveiled in late September. In terms of hardware, the Kindle Fire is more of a challenge to the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader than the iPad, but the real attraction and potential game-changer is the Fires integrated content experience specifically, all of the
content and services (including its Prime service, which includes streamed movies and free shipping) that Amazon already sells, which is also what allows Amazon to sell the Kindle Fire for an enticing $199. Amazons retail-based business model allows the company to subsidize the device on the premise that consumers will buy more from Amazon, be that physical goods or its digital content, says Ovum practice leader Adam Leach. This model is the direct inverse of Apples model; Amazon is selling a device in order to sell more content where as Apple sells content in order to sell more devices. And if the Fire does well, observed Rethink Research director Caroline Gabriel in a research note, Amazon is likely to move more directly into the iPads realm with a 10-inch stablemate with more technical bells and whistles. TA
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china vendors
The next generation

FTTx is driving the development of the next wave of Chinese telecom vendors Lachlan Colquhoun
he rapid growth in China, and Asias, FTTH market is driving the development of the next-generation of Chinese telecom vendors. Not long ago ZTE and Huawei were flying under the radar and slowly taking market share from established giants. Today they are almost household names. While none of the new generation is in a position to be a real challenger to ZTE and Huawei, the rapid development of the market is introducing some new names to the global telecom industry that are growing rapidly. Typically, these firms are either start-ups created by returning Chinese who are entrepreneurs and technologists, or state-owned firms, which grew from research grants to universities. According to Ovum, FTTx is growing at a much faster rate in Asia than the rest of the world. By 2016, 50% of all wireline broadband subscribers in the Asia Pacific will be FTTXs compared to 16% in Europe and 14% in North America. This will represent 100 million Chinese subscribers by 2016, largely off the back of a major infrastructure push by China Telecom. This has created an attractive opportunity for a number of smaller Chinese vendors that now have the ability to at first develop their business domestically, and then take it to the world as FTTH subscribers grow outside of Asia.
Julie Kunstler, Ovums principal analyst for optical components, names four companies which are taking advantage of this growth opportunity: Shenzhen Gongjin T&W, Cambridge Industries Group in Shanghai, Superxon and Wuhans FiberHome (see sidebar, next page). There are millions of customer equipment premises devices shipping each quarter, says Kunstler. In Q2 more than 6.5 million devices for FTTx were shipped worldwide and 80% ended up in China. So the market is still young in the sense that it is still growing.
Support from the majors
This new generation of vendors is partially dependent on ZTE and Huawei at this point for their growth, as many of them supply to the Chinese big two and to foreign vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent on an ODM basis. This is the model being pursued by Cambridge Industries Group (CIG), founded in 2005 by Gerald Wong, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who worked at Alcatel-Lucent before returning to China to start his own company. CIG is a significant supplier of GPON ONTs, and Kunstler says the company is leading the charge to bring BOSAs (bodirectional optical subassemblies) on board for PON equipment, an advance that delivers savings of around
40% when compared with traditional optical module-based designs. Rose Hu, CIGs marketing director, says the company is focused squarely on the PON CPE market. In this market we sell ODM and deal with tier-one and tier-two companies, says Hu. Huawei are also a small portion of our business, and our products are available in the US via equipment vendors and we have recently opened an office there. CIG is a private company and employs about 1,100 people, including 1,000 workers at a factory in Shanghai. It recently announced a doubling of its production capacity. Hu declines to be specific about the companys financial performance, but says that in the two years from 2009 CIGs revenues jumped more than 400%. Wong reported in October 2010 that CIGs revenues had grown at a CAGR of more than 125% from 2008 to 2010. Hu says the domestic Chinese market accounts for 30% of CIGs business, with 70% going offshore. International markets, she says are a major focus. We have a very international face, says Hu. The investors and many of the people working here are both Chinese and hold international passports and have lived and studied overseas. To look internationally is very natural for us. Ovums Kunstler also names another privately held company, Chengduwww.telecomasia.net
More coverage of
China Focus
You could have blindfolded me and I wouldnt have been able to tell the different between being at T&W or with another world-class equipment company
based Superxon, as another vendor on the rise. Some of Superxons founders and employees came out of Fiberxon, which through a series of mergers and acquisitions is now Source Photonics. Kunstler says Superxon also has a link to UTStarcom through that companys CEO Jacky Lu, and believes that UTStarcom was an early Superxon customer. Like CIG, Superxon is focused on the PON market, and is supplying equipment to major vendors. The companys strategy also involves BOSA designs for 10G PON equipment and Ethernet over Coax (EoC). Kunstler says this will give Superxon and opportunity when the Chinese cable industry begins to adopt PON within the next few years. Another expanding firm is Shenzhen Gongjin T&W, which came together in 2008 when Gongjin Electronics merged with Shenzhen T&W Electronics. T&W has a significant R&D capability and manufacturers a range of DSL products, with a growing interest in network video. I met with them in Shenzen in September, and as far as I was concerned walking into their headquarters was no different to walking into an Ericsson or Alcatel-Lucent facility, says Kunstler. In terms of their product display, their knowledge of the market and discussions on many aspects of commuwww.telecomasia.net
On the fast track

f any company is mentioned as likely to challenge either ZTE or Huawei, FiberHomes rapid growth in the optical networking market is certainly a top candidate. The state-owned FiberHome Group owns Accelink and WTD, which together are the largest optical component and module vendors in the Chinese domestic market. FiberHome Group is also the parent company of FiberHome Telecommunications Technologies, the company which only started to compete in earnest on the global market as recently as 2010. While FiberHome is active at home, it is building up its global sales from a small base and according to Ovum, should be the fifth ranked company with 4% of the $20 billion optical networking equipment market by 2015. Last year domestic sales accounted for 93% of its business. Domestically the company has had recent success in the PON markets, being selected as one of five suppliers for China Mobiles GPON equipment procurement tender, and one of three winners of the EPON tender. FiberHomes growing success is the result of several decades of development. Founded in 1974 and previously known as the Wuhan Research Institute of Posts and Telecommunications, the company now employs around 12,000 workers across five factories in China from its base in Wuhan, now known as Optical Valley.. Despite its growth and prospects, FiberHomes 21% growth in 2010 should be put into perspective. Its revenues of $826 million compares with $27 billion for Huawei and $10 billion for ZTE, but then, both those companies were small once. TA
nications we had a very intense debate, and you could have blindfolded me and I wouldnt have been able to tell the different between being at T&W or with another world-class equipment company. She was particularly impressed to learn that T&W had applied for CableLabs certification and conformance testing in the US. Devices approved by CableLabs will be used by the likes of Time Warner and Comcast for use in FTTx in the US. It gives them a good opportunity if and when that market moves over to PON in a much bigger way. At rival research house Infonetics, analyst Jeff Heynen pointed to Beijingbased Sumavision Technologies which is listed on the Shenzen stockmarket as a name to watch. The company was founded in 2000 and has a market capitalization of around $780 million. The company is the leading supplier of video infrastructure to Chinese cable operators, says Heynen. With these operators in a major spending cycle to upgrade from analog to digital, Sumavision stands to expand very quickly, since the cable TV subscriber market exceeds 150 million. With the Chinese cable industry moving into consolidation mode and convergence a major project for the immediate future, Sumavision is also poised to take advantage of the growing domestic market. TA
Machine-to-machine
The next growth story

Study finds Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have yet to implement a dedicated M2M regulatory framework Markus Steingrver, Detecon International
he Internet of Things connected, communicating machines is a huge growth market. Analysts predict that machines with micro-SIMs will outnumber SIM cards used by humans by a factor of ten within five years. As a consequence, the M2M market will be a multi-billion-dollar market with a short-term CAGR of about 40%. M2M use cases can be designed for all kinds of industries. Flexible, wireless M2M solutions also enable new businesses. Examples range from im-
Experts evaluate M2M growth barriers (scale 1 to 4)
proved demand planning and electrical power outage prevention by smart grids to real-time consignment tracking for location or temperature status. The healthcare sector also can benefit from the possibility of remote monitoring of vital body functions. Although there are ample opportunities for M2M deployment, sectors like healthcare with high margins are lagging behind. How can the full growth potential of M2M be unleashed? The chart below shows the results of interviews at the Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm event, in which industry experts evaluated potential M2M market growth barriers.
Addressing roadblocks
Source: Expert interviews at the 11th Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm

The top three obstacles are regulatory issues that translate into four roadblocks that national regulatory authorities (NRAs) need to address: numbering distribution, switching costs. technical interfaces and roaming. Addressing these roadblocks might require regulatory intervention or adjustment of existing regulatory practice. As national circumstances differ, there are no standard solutions. Numbering distribution. M2M devices use GSM/GPRS platforms with SIM cards and assigned numbers according to the national numbering plan. Strong growth in M2M device numbers requires sufficient mobile numbers that can be assigned. Numbers are, however, scarce. Depending on the numbering plan they might be limited. European regulators for example held consultations in early 2011 and the CEPT (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administra-
tions) issued a recommendation on how the significant number of member states with insufficient numbers should address the problem. In a nutshell, regulators face several options for eliminating the number bottleneck. In practice, opening up a new number range will be appropriate in most countries. Switching costs. M2M applications are often bound to one mobile operator for the entire device lifetime. Switching M2M provider by changing SIM cards is only a theoretical option. Estimates conclude that physically changing 10,000 SIMs would cost $1.4 million. To enable M2M users to switch operators, mobile network code (MNC) access for M2M users and providers would be a solution. Regulators now issue International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) in blocks of 10 billion numbers to mobile network operators. The IMSI includes a unique identification of the network: the MNC. If M2M users or intermediaries had their own MNCs, switching physical network operator would be possible without changing the SIM card. M2M users or providers would simply buy network services on the wholesale market. Today the MNC has only two digits in most countries, which limits the number of MNCs. The codes can, however, be extended to three digits. Technical interfaces. Telecom operators often have poor technical and commercial M2M interfaces. One single platform to connect to multiple network operators would be a potential advance. However, platform services and system integrators are starting to bridge this gap. These players already offer solutions that on the platform level enable
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M2M
M2M readiness in Asia

Singapore (IDA) 8-digit numbering plan Potential: 100 mio. #s 20 mio. assigned to mobile networks 40 mio. unassigned Malaysia (MCMC) Indonesia (NADFC) Thailand (NTC) 9-digit numbering plan Potential: 1 bio. #s 200 mio. assigned to mobile networks Numbering distribution 8-digit numbering plan Potential: 100 mio. #s 10-digit numbering plan Potential: 10 bio. #s 1 bio. assigned to mobile networks
Mobile network code
Only Network Provider with individual licensee is eligible for MNC. 2 digit code with 7 assignments
Only Network Provider with individual licensee is eligible for MNC. 3 digit code at 15 range & total of 8 assignments
Only Network Provider with individual license is eligible for MNC. 2 digit code with 14 assignments
Only licensees and concessionaires are eligible for MNC. 2 digit code with 10 assignments
Technical regulation
Several government initiatives promoting & guide M2M, including Wireless@SG Programme Consumer protection for data & premium rate services Bilateral roaming regulation with Malaysia
Mandatory RfiD for track & trace under consideration
No regulations or initiatives
No regulations or initiatives
M2M roaming rates
Bilateral roaming regulation with Singapore
No regulations
No regulations
National roaming
Commercial roaming deals were in place
Commercial roaming deal were in place
Commercial national roaming agreements in place No regulatory obligations
No national roaming obligations or deals 3G license conditions included national roaming
the maintenance of millions of devices while on the system integration level they address the slow time-tomarket of network operators. This market development also potentially benefits network operators: they gain the opportunity to connect with customers via a unified platform. However, the implication is to give up control by not being the platform provider itself. As a conclusion, there is no call for regulatory intervention as the market seems to regulate itself. Roaming. In the M2M context, roaming can be a potential showstopper. M2M applications often rely on full international coverage. Providers cannot negotiate competitive regional or global roaming solutions and have to use intermediaries. How can operators get around these barriers? Does the industry need mandatory national roaming in the context of M2M applications? Many M2M applications such as healthcare solutions rely on full national coverage, which might require national roaming. Sometimes international roaming is used as a substitute for a lack of national roaming. In this case a M2M provider uses foreign SIM cards from operators with full international roaming coverage such as Orange or T-Mobile. Intermewww.telecomasia.net
diaries such as Podsystem or Cinterion also offer M2M users international connectivity services. And is there a need to reduce roaming rates for M2M services? Instruments applicable to voice like SMS notification of roaming costs are not an option and M2M applications need to be always on. A dedicated number range or an M2M MNC with special lower rates could be a solution. To identify roadblocks for M2M deployment in Southeast Asia, Detecon conducted an M2M readiness assessment for Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. None of the four countries has implemented a dedicated M2M regulatory framework. There are, however, individual regulations in most of the identified areas of concern. In general, Malaysia and Singapore regulate more actively than Indonesia and Thailand, which follow a more hands-off approach. Malaysia and Singapore have started to regulate international roaming rates bilaterally especially for data services. Singapore has also started regulating international roaming rates. In contrast to many of the 48 CEPT member countries, all countries are M2M ready with regard to the numbering space. Yet no country has specific
roaming regulations for M2M. And none of the countries has developed a switching mechanism such as open MNC codes. Malaysia and Singapore are actively pushing M2M applications, which is illustrated by numerous initiatives dealing with technical standards and by initiatives explicitly designed to promote M2M applications. Not all regulations affecting M2M were designed to specifically address M2M needs. This could be the reason why in all countries MNCs are still reserved for network operators only. Malaysia and Singapore, however, address all the remaining roadblocks sufficiently. We therefore recommend these countries reassess the MNC assignment approach; if necessary a three-digit MNC should be introduced. Thailand and Indonesia should follow the example of the other two countries. Additionally, a pragmatic approach to ensure affordable roaming solutions like introducing specific M2M rates could be helpful. In Thailand assigning the available 3G range would also take M2M usage forward. TA Markus Steingrver is managing partner and head of the wholesale strategies group in the strategy and marketing department of Detecon International
Country Focus: Vietnam
Making 3G work
by Marc Einstein, Frost & Sullivan
ietnam has been one of the fastest-growing markets in Asia for some time, and given the level of market development today it is hard to fathom that the countrys mobile penetration rate stood at less than 20% only five years ago. The market has increased from 2.6 million subs in 2005 to 90.7 million last year, and revenues jumped fourfold to $4.4 billion over the same period.
The attractive growth spurred new local players such as Viettel and EVN Telecom as well as foreign investors from Hong Kong, South Korea and Russia to compete with the incumbents Mobifone and Vinaphone. This ultra-competitive environment led to cut-throat price competition, which eventually overheated the market and significantly increased voice traffic volumes. Vietnam was also one of the later
markets in the region to auction 3G licenses, finally doing so at the end of 2009. 3G services were largely heralded as the answer to the oversaturated market and were launched with much fanfare, and while 3G will eventually play a huge role in the development of the sector and of the country as a whole, so far 3G subscriber numbers have been largely disappointing compared to the massive growth seen in regional peers such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
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Vietnam lags behind in 3G
Source: Frost & Sullivan

Asian markets as in 2010 the nominal GDP per capita was $1,174 compared to $4,992 in Thailand, $2,946 in Indonesia and $2,140 in the Philippines, according to the World Bank. Slower usage is to be expected to some extent. Inflation is also rampant in the country and has recently topped 23%, making it one of the highest rates in the world. The real issue with 3G usage in Vietnam, however, lies more in how the service is marketed. The past three years has been characterized by vicious price competition, which continues to this day as Beeline recently launched free in-network calling for some recharge denominations. This price war has seeped into the 3G market as well as Viettel, for example, offers unlimited 3G dongle access for 120,000 dong ($5.74). What the market need is branding and showing consumers the value of mobile broadband services if operators in the country aim to monetize their networks. There is hope, however. The VNPT group, which owns both Mobifone and Vinaphone, will be required to either merge or divest from one of the operators as a new law forbids more than 20% cross-holding in two telecom competitors. Either action taken by the VNPT would reduce price pressures in the market. More importantly, Vietnam is becoming a major destination for manufacturing mobile devices. According to the Vietnamese government, the country exported $3.3 billion worth of mobile phones in the first eight months of 2011, increasing threefold year on year. Nokia intends to close a manufacturing facility in Romania and invest 200 million euros in a new Vietnam facility while Samsung plans to manufacture 100 million units in the country in 2012. Smartphone sales are currently only 10% of total sales and having a large in-country manufacturing base will help quickly raise this number. TA Marc Einstein is industry manager of ICT practice at Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific. For more info contact: djeremiah@frost.com or jessie.loh@frost.com
The Ministry of Information and Communications announced in July that after 18 months of commercial 3G service, the country had eight million subscribers and they had generated $173 million. Comparing this with other countries in the region, Vietnam is on the lower side of 3G usage it is roughly on par with neighboring Cambodia but far behind other markets in the region. In fairness Vietnam is still a less developed economy than most Southeast
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Adapting to the changing customer

In this section Analyst View: Gartner
Narrowing the customer gap

Viewpoint
Adapting to business change

Analyst View: KPMG
Indias new telecom policy shows vision

Cloud Services
Core requirements for IaaS
billing & OSS special analyst view: gartner
Narrowing the customer experience gap

Martina Kurth, Norbert Scholz, Gartner
common problem among communications service providers (CSPs) is diminishing customer loyalty. This is as much a result of the deregulation of the industry as it is calls by customers for better service. It is driving the demand for higher-value service and allowing for new more nimble competitors such as mobile virtual network operators and over-the-top (OTT) providers to enter the market. CSPs do have a trump card. They possess a wealth of technical and commercial data that they need to share internally across various departments the network, IT, finance, marketing and customer support if they want to take the required actions to improve the customer ex-
perience. They can also leverage this information to enable channel and alliance partners to expand their market reach and target new customer segments through advertising or marketing campaigns. This is crucial for established CSPs to help counter competitors that have fewer legacy systems and therefore are more in tune with their customer base. CSPs have periodically touted customer improvement initiatives. Now competition is nudging them toward gaining a better understanding of their customers to avoid defections. But only with the requisite front- and back-office support solutions can CSPs tap the full potential of these new technologies.
Fragmented view
Existing OSS and BSS infrastructures are ill-prepared to manage the requirements of gaining and using better insights into customer behavior because they dont provide a unified view of customers across the variety of services they use. CSPs should converge these technologies across resources, customers and services to allow unified customer management. This includes convergence among these solutions and among solutions adjacent to them such as value-added services, business intelligence (BI), analytics, device management, CRM and others. Currently these technologies dont talk to each other, and often there are multiple, sometimes dozens, of separate instances that all fulfil more or-less the same functions. Overall, we see OSS and BSS/CRM process convergence only happening slowly because of the CSPs organizational set-up (with different departments for networking, IT, customer care,
24 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia www.telecomasia.net
analyst view: gartner billing & OSS special
etc.) and the fact that buying centers for OSS and BSS are usually separate. Customer experience monitoring and management, however, require convergence across domains, not least converging data. CSPs are turning their attention toward improving customer experience with the help of tools that provide greater operational insight into service management data and correlate with customer-facing metrics. CSPs have recognized the urgency of tracking and addressing the technical and commercial reasons for customer churn. They are gauging customer perceived quality in many ways, such as correlating the number of times it takes to access a service or contact of contact center, or simply by launching surveys. Some approaches even attempt to provide predictive information on the likelihood of churn for particular customers by correlating multiple data sources and exploring the results in a business context. Customer experience management (CEM) goes beyond data processing and monitoring. It is a strategic management initiative with the intent to proactively impact the customers perceived quality of experience. CEM is a wider term and embraces all the actions that CSPs take, based on the insights and conclusions gained from experience monitoring. In the context of OSS and BSS, CEM means that CSPs usually enhance their OSS and BSS environment by adding an additional systems layer on top, which enables them to leverage existing functionality in the most efficient and cohesive way, extract customer-centric insights and take active measures either on the network, IT or commercial side to improve customer experience.
Road blocks
As companies in other industries have been doing for a long time, CSPs aspire to invest in the pressing drivers of customer satisfaction. However, the knowledge about those drivers necessitates a more rigorous analytical look. CSPs must now move beyond merely monitoring customer experience into managing customer experience, requiring that they leverage numerous
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assets such as those mentioned in the previous section. CSPs need an end-to-end operational view to roll out and support new services as the complexity of new services increases. This shift also comprises process-driven end-to-end solutions, with a clear, systems congruent, customer-centric view. Efficient customer management requires aligning various network-facing OSS and customer-facing BSS and CRM systems with actual customer behavior and preferences. The goal is a more holistic analytical approach that differentiates to the extent possible between correlation and cause. So far, CEM initiatives have centred on technical key performance indicators (KPIs) either from the network and OSS or on KPIs from customer-facing systems such as BSS and CRM. Usually the users are either technical operations such as networks/IT or commercial/ marketing teams. As customer experience becomes more of a C-level matter, this gradually initiates the need to become more holistic, mapping technical KPIs with business KPIs. This could include providing insights on technical network problems, such as slow downloads or poor video quality to certain customer groups. CSPs could then determine what actions to take, if any, based on the value of each group for their business. In particular, technical analysis gets mapped with business data and actual customer perception, to allow proactive measures. More technical and commercial data insights become aligned with the business processes to allow targeted business actions. CEM ideally resides in a centralized, consolidated database that interfaces with the centralized product and service catalog and the service inventory database, containing commercial customer and technical product data. This unified data management allows a customer-centric view, which congruent exploitation of network and subscriber data, and the OSS, BSS, and CRM data necessary to proactively manage particular problems. For example, as an alarm gets generated when a customer router fails, another alarm gets generated to customer support who initiate a resolution and customer contact. TA
CSPs must now move beyond merely monitoring customer experience into managing customer experience
Martina Kurth and Norbert Scholz are research directors in Gartners carrier operations and strategies team. Martina focuses on OSS and BSS systems and Norbert is responsible for primary research with vendors and end-users
billing & OSS special view point
Driven to do business differently

Billing systems need to understand that business models are relationship-driven and characterized by fluid and interrelated agreements across customers and suppliers Karl Whitelock, Stratecast
ver the past two years there has been increased attention directed by the media, analysts, regulators, enterprise customers and, most importantly, end-users toward service providers about billing. All want CSPs to make the billing process less complex and more accurate while providing a web 2.0+ style online experience. The heart of the issue is that CSPs must differentiate at an unprecedented rate through organic and partner-based service innovation. This increases the need for sophisticated bundling and the ability to manage the billed revenue stream and compensation due to suppliers and channels. It also means that flat-rate bundles or even tier-based customer usage plans are no longer enough as issues with content consumption and supplier/partner management continue to mount. Enter the world of agreements-based billing (ABB). In its simplest form, agreements-based billing recognizes that business models are relationship-driven and characterized by fluid, individualized and interrelated agreements across customers, suppliers and channels. For example, at the beginning of a business relationship, all parties define terms and conditions, along with the associated financial definitions. In essence, agreements are about the dance between the customer and the CSP, in which the customer is seeking customized services and discounts and the CSP is seeking financial commitments. Relationship definitions can be between an
organization and its customers (B2C), between two work teams internally, or between one organization and others in a wholesale arrangement (B2B) that will eventually play out to enduser customers. Obviously, relationships can become quite complex, especially when the agreement requirements are extensive, terms are interconnected within and across participants, and monetary measures flow in multiple directions. Flexibility to support changing business needs is essential as technology advances, market conditions are redefined, business relationships evolve and organizational structures are transformed. On the other hand, if support for new business models and service personalization options is limited, the business typically forgoes opportunities or creates workarounds which can result in issues with accuracy, auditability and scalability. At a time when business change is needed the most, inflexible systems will cause an organization to just get by. Such a scenario, especially as the communications industry moves to greater levels of complexity, is not an acceptable option. Consumers of communications services want intuitive online usage controls and account-level insights to reduce bill shock if their consumption exceed bundled limits. They also want to pick-and-choose payment methods or pricing options on a self-service basis, when it is convenient. This level of customer control applies to not only postpaid customers but an increasing number of prepaid users as well.
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view point billing & OSS special
Enterprise customers, on the other hand, want to negotiate tailored agreements that match their unique needs and consumption patterns, while rewarding them for their total spend across all regions and products. They also want to summarize usage by department or their corporate hierarchy in increasingly flexible ways. In addition, they want to know when usage goes outside pre-determined limits outliers in the form of individual users or their volume commitments to certain products which could be tagged for more intense scrutiny by a business unit manager, the accounting department or even a security team, as the need might arise. Metratech, which introduced ABB, recently explained to Stratecast how one conferencing and collaboration service provider built a differentiating brand in a very competitive field based on its ability to monetize complex B2B agreements and provide an intuitive on-line billing experience. The operator helped its enterprise and consumer-level customers overcome a significant level of bill shock each month because they can now view billing details per collaboration session, at any point in time. This includes items such as rate per minute costs for each connection and any international long-distance dial fees associated with a collaboration call. It also shows all associated fees, including: addon fees, participant fees, non-show fees, addnew-user fees, re-issue fees and wallet card fees. The service differentiator for this operator is in intuitively providing billing details after a collaboration session has ended, which allows the companys IT resources to dynamically control and model its business, as it helps its customers to better manage their collaboration session costs.
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Stratecasts Karl Whitelock Agreements-based billing defines what, how, when and where services are supplied, along with how much the supplier expects to be compensated. For the CSP marketplace, the agreements-based billing approach means offering customers an understanding of billing charges, compared to their discount tiers and volume commitments, at any time. From a supplier perspective, this approach means delivering a cloud service operator with a snapshot of billing status and a compensation status for associated partners and suppliers on frequent time intervals. Agreements-based billing and compensation means that each customer transaction may result in multiple interrelated partner transactions. Future success of all service-oriented business in all industries now depends on how quickly the end-to-end monetization and partner compensation processes can be addressed whenever business change occurs. Only a handful of software suppliers have grasped this degree of the business monetization concept. MetraTech for example, has made ABB a reality for not just the communications industry, but a host of others including the financial services, conferencing and collaboration, cloud services, and transportation services industries. Agreements-based commerce is todays new business reality. TA
Karl Whitelock is director of OSS/BSS strategy at Stratecast (a division of Frost & Sullivan) kwhitelock@stratecast.com
billing & OSS special analyst view: kpmg
Translating vision into action

Indias new telecom policy shows strong vision but needs pragmatic execution to succeed Ashvin Vellody, KPMG
ndias Telecom Minister last month unveiled the draft telecom policy for India with the vision to use the telecom network as one of the enablers for inclusive growth. In his words, In achieving the goals of national telecom policy 2011, revenue generation will play a secondary role. The telecom policy proposals garnered praise as a vision document, but it remains to be seen how pragmatic implementation steps are taken to make the vision come alive. The call for pan-India licenses will create seamless, nationwide service with no charges on roaming between different circles. The new policy looks to take mobile number portability (MNP) to the next level by allowing users to retain the same number anywhere in India. In addition, the policy seeks to provide stronger consumer protection and a higher level of service accountability. The complaint redressal mechanism is set to be strengthened once the policy is adopted and implemented.
Focus on retention
Telecom operators will need to strengthen their customer-care processes and systems to meet the additional needs as the customer base matures into a retention-focused model rather than only on growth. BSS/OSS vendors will have the opportunity to provide targeted solutions to cater to the rule changes in roaming charges, settlements processes and develop related MIS to assist operators deliver business results effectively. A second area of focus is on broadband for everyone. The proposed policy seeks to increase rural penetration from 35% to 60% and drive the effort to create a knowledge-based society. This will likely give incentives to operators to work with players across the mobile ecosystem, including CPE manufacturers and content hosting providers covering entertainment, education, health, governance and commerce. This is vital to promote growth and ensure commercial success for ICT players, including network operators, equipment manufacturers and content developers.
The promotion of content creation, particularly in vernacular languages, will help drive regional content creation and delivery with the twin objectives of reaching a wider audience and ensuring growth of internet access. The policy also calls for domestic vendors to get preferential market access as Made in India, which will encourage technology collaboration and products designed to cater to the unique needs of the India market. A vibrant application developer community can increase economic rent-taking from 3G and LTE technology. This policy should encourage local developers to develop tailored content and niche applications to cater the very long tail of the mobile application market in India. The fourth area of focus is on increased communications security. Telecom service providers need to take adequate measures to ensure the security of the communication flowing through their networks by adopting contemporary information security standards. The government has acknowledged the need for a coordinated effort encompassing information technology and telecom for ensuring the security of cyberspace. Operators have to review their current security systems and develop new security strategies conforming to the best global practices. The need for a comprehensive information security framework and assurance system requires them to work with niche domain vendors to devise methods and strategies toward ensuring conformance to new and evolving security standards. The need for centralized monitoring of the traffic flowing through a network also is important. This would warrant the design and engineering of purpose-built systems and methods to ensure timely detection of suspected traffic. The overall policy has scored well in terms of completeness of vision. The vital test will happen in the coming months as this policy moves toward the execution phase. We will await the measurable outcomes until then. TA
Ashvin Vellody is director of management consulting at KPMG. Views expressed in this article are that of the author and not attributed in any way to KPMG India.
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billing & OSS special
Cloud services
Core capabilities for IaaS

Cloud providers with closer ties to the network and a better grasp on security, scalability and QoS have an advantage Ari Banerjee, Heavy Reading
t is clear that operators are looking to the cloud as a new business channel and hope to fill any gaps left by the established cloud providers, such as Amazon and Google. The established providers, having had issues with disruption of service, leave some skeptical and looking to a cloud provider that may have closer ties to the network and a better grasp on security, scalability, QoS, service management and performance monitoring. So for telcos infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is definitely the lowest-hanging fruit. Obvious expectations from telcos are that IaaS must be ubiquitous, always available, have low latency and have a high level of reliability and QoS.
This service, tapping a telcos connectivity infrastructure and skills, promises to deliver a new revenue opportunity that will compensate for the inevitable decline in telephony revenues, as millions of people across the globe start consuming virtual infrastructure across networks. This article looks at the core requirements for IaaS, as identified by service providers that are rolling out IaaS services, along with the infrastructure capabilities that need to be in place to achieve those requirements. Scale. Process automation and management tools need to support hundreds and even thousands of companies, and potentially millions of end-users, and also provide the highest levels of customer visibility, control and end-toend assurance. Converged network and IT capacity pool. Virtualization and service management tools need to span IT and network boundaries, so that the pool appears seamless and both servers and network work together to support endto-end user and application SLAs. Self-service and on-demand capacity. A customer portal that gives customers visibility into and control over their virtual IaaS environment. Process automation and management tools to enable customers to turn infrastructure resources up/down in software, on demand, without needing to dispatch a technician to provision more capacity is also critical. High reliability and resilience. Automated distribution of applications across the virtualized infrastructure (LAN and WAN) for resilience and SLA management. Integrated BSS/OSS. Automated IaaS management and operational processes to support flow-through service provisioning, rating, settlement, etc.
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Cloud services billing & OSS special
Service management. Integrated SLA and class-of-service management to support customer requirements for different application types, e.g., business-critical or non-businesscritical. In the service management context convergence of eTOM and ITIL is a critical step, especially for telcos looking to successfully serve enterprise customers. The pressure is on operators to provide differentiated, profitable cloud services. A streamlined, automated BSS/OSS will play a pivotal role in enabling service providers to quickly create, deliver and monetize differentiated cloud services. The key underlying software requirements they need to provide flawless cloud services include: Customer and business management layer. A CRM-like self-service and customer care solution is needed to manage customer expectations and needs. Both the customer and the customer service representative should have access to a broad range of service-level data, related usage rates and metering characteristics. Revenue management. Billing and charging need to be linked directly to a mediation-like layer to capture all metered records and provide the necessary chargeback to individual or departmental levels. They also need to interface with the self-service engine to provide the necessary usage/chargeback information to users. The flexibility of pricing, complex bundling capability and embedded business intelligence to provide customized offers need to be critical features of a revenue management solution set. Different charging/rating scenarios that need to be supported include: Usage-based consumption (duration, events) Chargeback SLA violation calculations Storage (GB-month, million I/O requests) Bandwidth (public Internet in/outbound, same cloud, regional cloud) Computing (CPU hours, RAM hours, service units) Configurable server instance types Partner management, contract management to determine individual terms with each partner on a per-service basis
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Model contractual clauses in all aspects of the financial relationship including payment terms, disputes, taxation and currency requirements Commission calculations for value-added resellers and agents, as well as referral fees for referring partners Allocating SLA penalties across the value chain based on fault End-to-end subscriber management, which includes account relationship, terms, realtime balance management, customer hierarchies, subscription type, etc., should also be part of the revenue management solution set. Cloud analytics. Analytics capability to provide reporting, analytics and data-mining capability. Data can be pulled from an existing CRM system, self-service portals, or from the resource management layer itself to gain insight into customer usage patterns, trend analysis of service consumption and changing demands, and capacity planning of existing resources, ensuring future cloud service requirements can be met. Service management layer. A streamlined fulfillment system needs to feed requests from the self-service engine through the resource management platform to provide access to the required cloud services (storage, computing power). The performance and service assurance layers need to manage top down from the application end-users perspective things such as performance, availability and behavior patterns, which will help in SLA/QoS management for private clouds. Integrated SLA and class-ofservice management need to support customer requirements for different application types, such as business-critical or non-business-critical. Network resource management layer. The necessary hardware, software and services are required to create shareable computing power, development environments and applications. This layer also provides IT resource management, application lifecycle management, database management and usage me- Ari Banerjee is a senior tering. TA analyst at Heavy Reading
A streamlined, automated BSS/ OSS will play a pivotal role in enabling service providers to quickly create, deliver and monetize differentiated cloud services
Forum
l Jane Wang, Ovum
Chinas enterprises slow to adopt mobility strategy
he majority of Chinese companies do not provide mobile devices to employees. According to an Ovum survey of large enterprises across 12 countries, China has the lowest rate of company-provided devices across BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries. A bringyour-own-device (BYOD) approach is already a reality in China. However, rather than aiming at improving end-user satisfaction this is driven primarily by cost constraints. For companies that provide mobile devices the average expense is the lowest across all the surveyed countries. Enterprises in China mainly use voice and SMS-based mobile services, which suggests a low level of maturity of mobile services in the market.
Despite the success of iPads and other tablets in the consumer market, most companies in China still do not consider them suitable for corporate usage and have not added them to procurement processes. Overall, big-screen mobile devices still have not made inroads into the Chinese enterprise. Mobile email and IM are the most widely used mobile applications. A few enterprises also have implemented supply and inventory management mobile services. GPS-based locations based services and field service automation offered by mobile telcos are also popular among logistic and supply companies, and there is interest in sales force and analytic applications. More than in other markets, indoor cellular system solutions are widely deployed in China to increase cellular signals inside offices. Voice over Wi-Fi is still not allowed in the country. It represents a threat to telcos legacy voice services, and we expect it to continue to be constrained by the regulator in the near future. There is growing interest in mobile UC and convergent features as enterprises start to realize the cost savings and staff productivity benefits of these solutions. Considering the early stage of mobility adoption, players need to demonstrate the direct benefits of these applications. Real case studies
Avoiding the big screen
will help to convince customers and create momentum. Customer perception is strongest for IP telephony vendors for enterprise mobility, putting them in a good place to establish their footprint in this area. They are followed by telcos, which are trying to position their value-added services to offset revenue declines in traditional voice. UC and FMC are part of most telcos enterprises services portfolio. However, these services are still in an early stage and most are simple bundled offerings including fixed and mobile services. Telcos should promote their ability to offer integrated fixed and mobile services for the enterprises. The one-stop shop for multiple services with a single bill and single point of contact for support is a good way to address the cost concerns that enterprises associate with managing relationships with multiple suppliers. The BYOD trend is growing for enterprises in China. Providers should recognize this trend and make sure their device management capabilities and partnerships evolve to reflect this need. They should also help enterprises control the costs of mobility by offering centralized contracts and providing tools to improve visibility and cost management. With many employees using their own mobile devices for business, enterprises will struggle to mobilize their business applications over a wide range of device brands and models. Providers need to help enterprises with this challenge and consider the compatibility of different models when developing applications and management tools. Vendors and services providers need to consider offering mobility solutions integrated with business process and that provide clear business gains. SI capabilities either inhouse or through partnerships will be a key differentiator. Chinese telcos need to increase their focus on the enterprise sector and invest in more value-added mobility services. This will stimulate customer to use more applications and drive higher usage of mobile data, which will ultimately help telcos to achieve higher ARPUs. TA
Jane Wang is a senior analyst with Ovum based in Beijing
More than in other markets, indoor cellular system solutions are widely deployed in China to increase cellular signals inside offices
More coverage of
China Focus
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NSN appoints exec chairman

Nokia Siemens Networks has appointed Jesper Ovesen as executive chairman. Previously, Ovesen was CFO at Danish telecoms group TDC during the companys restruc- Jesper Ovesen turing process and IPO. Ovesen replaces former CEO OlliPekka Kallasvuo, who has stepped down from the role of non-executive chairman citing time commitments.
BS TransComm appoints COO

BS TransComm has appointed R.K. Dubey as its COO for the northern region of India. Dubey comes to BSTL from Vihan Enterprises, where he held the CEO position. Prior to that, he worked in various capacities at Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, TVS Interconnect Systems, Bharti Infratel and Wireless Tata Tele Infra Structure.
Thuraya has new CFO

Patrick Chenel has joined Thuraya Telecommunications as CFO. He replaces Mohammed Sharaf, a long-time Thuraya CFO, who left the mobile satellite service operator earlier this year. Chenel will lead Thurayas financial management, planning and reporting functions, as well as maintain and develop the companys relationships with the relevant financial institutions and strategic suppliers across the globe. Prior to joining Thuraya, Patrick was the CFO for the real estate arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, Qatari Diar.
telecomcareer
SAP HK has new MD

Paul Sakrzewski has succeeded Mike Hawes as MD for SAP Hong Kong. Sakrzewski joined SAP in 2008 and was most recently head of business operations for SAP Asia Pacific Japan. Paul Sakrzewski Prior to joining SAP, he held senior executive roles at BOC Group and Goodman Fielder.
HP CTO retires
HP said its tech chief Shane Robison has retired effective November 1. Robison, an EVP as well as chief strategy and technology officer and a member of HPs executive council, spent Shane Robison 11 years at HP. He will not be replaced, the company said. Robison is the first major executive to depart since Meg Whitman replaced Leo Apotheker as chief executive in September. He helped shaped the companys corporate strategy and technology agenda. He has led many of the companys largest merger and acquisition activities and R&D efforts, HP added.
Patton names VP for South Asia ops

Patton Electronics has appointed Aveek Roy as VP of South Asia operations for PE-Inalp, the companys India affiliate. Based in New Delhi, Roy will lead business development and sales operations throughout the Indian sub-continent. Prior to joining Patton, Roy has previously worked with several Nasdaqlisted organizations, including Audiocodes, NMS Communications, Siemens and General Electric.
Telco Systems hires sales VP

Telco Systems, a provider of multiservice MPLS and Carrier Ethernet access and aggregation solutions, has appointed Orlando Tan as VP of sales in APAC, based in Singapore. Tan comes to Telco Systems from Audiocodes where he served in a similar role. He has 18 years of experience in the ICT industry, leading sales, new business and channel strategy for various organizations in companies such as ECtel and ECI Telecom.
MMA appoints comms director

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has named John Bianchi communications director for the organization. Based in New York, Bianchi will lead PR efforts for North America, working in conjunction with North American MD Michael Becker and reporting directly to MMA CEO Greg Stuart.
MD for APAC and EMEA

Convergys has promoted Marife Zamora to MD for Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Zamora, who previously served as the first country manager of the Philippines, will lead the companys international customer management business and oversee 37,000 employees throughout contact centers in UK, India and the Philippines.
Roamware names new CMO

Peter Alexander has joined Romaware as EVP and CMO. Alexander comes to Roamware from Cisco, where he worked for 15 years and served most recently as VP of worldwide file marketing. Prior to Cisco he held senior roles at StrataCom, Republic Telecom Systems, Entropic Speech and ROLM Corp.
Contacting Telecom Career

Advertising: Gigi Chan Tel: 852 2589 1338 Fax: 852 2559 7002 E-mail: gchan@telecomasia.net Editorial: Fiona Chau Tel: 852 2589 1333 Fax: 852 2559 7002 E-mail: fchau@telecomasia.net
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Post Show
Asian Carriers Conference September 27-30 Cebu, Philippines
What next?
ith domestic and international voice prices continuing to drop and more business moving over-the-top, carriers are grappling with the question: What is next? At the Asian Carriers Conference this was a key theme as telcos gathered in Cebu for bilateral meetings with their partners, potential customers and rivals. The annual event, now in its seventh year, once again brought in record numbers despite a typhoon, which hit Luzon to the north on the morning of Day 1, and a strike by Philippines Airline ground staff. The organizer, PLDT/ Smart, reported a turnout of 942 delegates, up from just under 800 the previous year. In the opening keynote address, PLDT SVP and head of international carrier business, Eric Alberto, frankly summed up the feelings of the vast majority of the carrier audience when he said: Its getting harder to make a buck, let alone stay on a steady growth path. With the international and domestic voice business under huge stress, he noted carriers have no choice but to
Evert-Jaap Lugt
Annti Orhling
operators to build their own communities because of the lack of established OS or device maker app stores with a local footprint in the region. To succeed they need to establish a large developer community and engage customers by taking advantage of their understanding of the local market. To build that connected community in a market where 80% of people have 2G feature phones, he said Smart recently launched the Netphone, an Android handset from ZTE. Combined with the SmartNet platform, he said the device gives users access to social media/networking at a much lower price point than standard smartphones and prepaid data plans. The Safe Browsing feature allows Netphone users to access selected SmartNet services for free or at dis
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PLDTs Eric Alberto

search for new business, or in the industry vernacular new value streams. Underscoring the urgency of telcos quest, he pointed to Facebook hitting the 800-million-user mark and tying up with Skype to offer instant messaging apps. It has also launched a messaging service, combining online chat, text messages and real-time conversation tools with email. All these complete directly with traditional telco services, Alberto said. But rather than dwell on negative scenarios, which everyone is well aware of and most telcos have accepted, he gave examples of how they can compete. Telcos must build their own communities like the OTT players have. He sees an opportunity in Asia for
counted rates. Users dont have to worry they will be charged for other internet services that run in the background, which happens on conventional smartphones, Alberto explained. The Netphone 701 is the first in a series of Android handsets Smart will release as various price points. Through the Netphone, we intend to build communities of smartphone subscribers who use a wide range of applications from various sources. Looking at the need for telcos to partner, Antti Orhling, co-founder and inventor of Blyk, noted in his presentation that: If you want to win something, you have to work with people and not fight with them. While that may seem obvious, telcos have a long history of being slow to work with players outside the telecom business and accept new concepts. Text messaging is the classic example. Back in the late 90s, he was in the difficult position of trying to persuade operators that SMS was a good business. In terms of customer loyalty and moving toward a community, Orhling said that giving people a SIM card is not enough anymore. That is just the first step. You have to enroll and manage them by offering personalized content. He said operators have to move from basic demographics to psychographics and dynamic info about usage and behavior, which is what Blyk does with its messaging platform to link users with personalized content. CEO and founder of Nimbuzz Evert-Jaap Lugt started his presentation by noting that we are living in more interesting times then ever. Ive been in the industry 20 years and were facing more threats but also more opportunities than ever before. To look at the future of carriers,
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Lugt said you need to look back five to six years when life was very comfortable for operators and margins were good. Back then, the focus was on hardware hardware was king. Nokia had 40% share of the market. He said now its all about the apps, functionality, OS, standardization and most importantly the ecosystem with only two players dominating the space Google and Apple. The future winners he said will be the carriers that are capable of building the best ecosystem. The stakes are extremely high because the winner takes it all as they lock you in. The plenary panel at the end of the day looked at the challenges of moving from a being a dumb-pipe provider to being a smart-pipe provider. Many on the panel were skeptical that most operators could make that leap, pointing to a lack of risk taking, no culture of partner-
ing and not being receptive to new business models or ways of doing business. iBasis CTO Ajay Joseph said well all end up as dumb pipes. Being able to tap their hidden assets [customer data] is good in theory. But you have to be willing to take risks, and thats not in a telcos DNA. To develop the right DNA takes time, said Tata Communications SVP Christian Michaud. It starts with top management. We dont have that time. Asked for the top priorities for telcos over the next 12 months, the panelists suggested: speeding up, dont try to do everything in-house and diversifying their employee base by bringing in people from outside the telecom space who can take risks and understand value-added services and partnerships. They said having people who know how to build software will be vital moving forward. TA
eventscalendar
Networking opportunities
across Asia
Date Event Location
November 15, 2011 November 16 17, 2011 November 16 19, 2011 November 21 22, 2011
Indonesia Telecoms International Summit Mobile Asia Congress
Jakarta, Indonesia Hong Kong SAR, China
Vietnam Comm/ Vietnam Internet & IT/ Vietnam Electronics 2011 Hanoi, Vietnam 4G Device World Seoul, South Korea Hong Kong SAR, China Singapore Singapore Shanghai, China
November 30 - December 01, 2011 CDN World Forum Asia November 30 - December 01, 2011 New Digital Economics & CSG APAC Executive Forum 2011 November 30 December 02, 2011 Carrier Ethernet APAC November 30 December 02, 2011 World Cards and Payments China Focus 2011
December 01, 2011 January 15 17, 2012 January 16 18, 2012 February 07 08, 2012 February 27 March 01, 2012 March 20 21, 2012 March 21 22, 2012 March 21 23, 2012
Telecom Asia Readers Choice Awards PTC 2012 Mobile Money APAC Management World Asia GSMA Mobile World Congress Mobile Commerce Summit Asia 2012 Annual OSS BSS Summit Convergence India
Singapore Honolulu, USA Hong Kong SAR, China Singapore Barcelona, Spain Singapore Singapore India
For full details of the events, visit www.telecomasia.net To list an event, contact Candace Ho at cho@telecomasia.net
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Tony Poulos l
PoulosPoints
No more sitting on the fence

his months issue is packed with stories about mobile apps and their evolution but, apart from some involvement in the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) or some homegrown efforts, most Asian operators will probably not benefit from this app revolution or will they? If youve been reading the headlines, you will have seen that web apps are emerging as a viable option, especially for enterprises wishing to use cloud services and make them available to all employees regardless of what mobile tablet or phone they are using. The fact that web apps, applications residing on web servers and not on the device itself, are OS agnostic makes them the ideal extension to any operators cloud arsenal. Combining web apps, cloud services and security would make a winning combination for any telco operator wanting to add the smart to the pipes. The combined offering could be difficult for enterprises to resist and something a little more difficult for OTT players to compete with. In fact, tying too closely to one cloud service or supplier may be limiting for businesses that prefer to take a best of breed approach. The communications service provider (CSP) with multiple cloud offerings tied to secure communications channels may be just the trick. If we take things one step further and look at todays market reality, consumers and employees do not want to be tied to any particular company stipulated handset or device, often preferring to use their own. This should not be discouraged (think of the cost savings) but provided for. Instead of having to log in to each cloud service separately, CSPs could offer a single secure log-in and encryption key for the online session, regardless of which service or web app is being used. This realm of BYOD (bring your own device) is gaining favor with businesses, not only because of potential cost-savings, but also in terms of staff satisfaction and morale. However, access to the corporate network creates a host of management and security headaches for IT staff and calls for careful and unobtrusive device management capabilities. Again,
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Freedom to choose
something the CSP could provide as a valueadded service. HP is one of a number of suppliers that realize the importance of BYOD and recently launched its own Mobile Applications Services designed to enable workers and consumers to access applications, data and business processes through any device and from any location. HP and its rivals, including Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, are rapidly rolling out solutions to help businesses deal with the growing BYOD trend, which has been fueled by the rising use of iOS and Android-based smartphones and, more recently, tablets. Does this mean a direct threat to CSPs? Hardly. It is unlikely that any one supplier will have all the components required for a true end-to-end enterprise cloud or device strategy offering applications from multiple developers, on multiple platforms, over multiple network types and across multiple geographies. Thats why the smarter mobile players, like Vodafone, are setting up global services operations, specifically to provide a one-stop shop for all an enterprise might require, and a neutral one at that. For a truly open cloud services offering everything from virtualized servers, ubiquitous network transit, any web app delivered to a secure device and a trusted third party (TTP) will be required, and, sought after by enterprise customers. CSPs have played this role before with simpler PBX and Citrix services and have played it well, but can they do it again? It is no longer a matter of if and how, but more like when. CSPs will have to be willing to stand up and be counted or this whole new market will pass them by. The dilemma lies, yet again, with the uncertainty of making big investments in a line of business few have had long-term experience with. Telcos boards are becoming so risk-averse they may take some convincing, or even replacing, before they get it. Waiting to see what pans out is not an option. By the time the slow movers get into the game it will be too late. The market is expecting telcos to take the lead. The technology is available, the reasons are mounting and even some of the OTT players are looking for a TTP to lead the charge. Is your telco business up to the challenge? TA
Tony is market strategist for the TM Forum and a regular contributor to Telecom Asia
Telcos boards are becoming so risk-averse they may take some convincing, or even replacing, before they get it
backpage briefing
Apples Siri voice recognition system is proving to be something of a wise-ass, directing anyone who asks about sex to local escort services. Other savvy answers provided to readers of USA Today include responses to riddles, details of what the device is wearing, and even a detailed answer to the eternal question, whats the meaning of life. However, with many non-US users complaining the system doesnt recognize their accent, perhaps the critical question we should be asking Siri is: Why dont you work outside America? TA
Please speak American
It seems Chinas burgeoning micro-bloggers are ripe for the picking by watermelon farmers. Ten farmers in the rural town of Changgou have doubled the selling price of their crops by advertising on domestic site Weibo, which they turned to because they didnt have enough cash for regular advertising. Consumers were won over by pictures of farmers tending their crops, with some driving for four hours to buy the melons, and dealers placing orders for more than each farmer can produce. The rich pickings have, understandably, helped some of the farmers overcome initial skepticism about the new technology. TA
Watersellin
Web porn is turning men into flops up to 30 years before nature can. Research by US journal Psychology Today reveals a growing number of 20-somethings reporting problems with their manhood as a result of overdosing on porn. Many are unable to have actual sex due to an increased tolerance to dopamine the brains pleasure chemical. It can take up to three months to recover normal functionality, provided the fella can keep his hand off his mouse in the meantime. Those who cant wait may wish to turn their browser to online adverts for Viagra, but that does run the risk of exposure to a whole other type of virus. TA
Internet droop
Vodafone price woes
A US man faces a three year probation for showing pornography on a broadcast of the Superbowl in 2009. Frank Tanori Gonzalez pleaded guilty to computer tampering during a court trial, after being fingered for the crime in February this year. Around half of cable broadcaster Comcasts 80,000 subscribers saw the explicit 37-second clip when they should have been watching the dying seconds of a tense final. It took three years to track Gonzalez down, and he is now due to be sentenced on December 1. TA
Facing justice
Vodafone faces pricing problems whichever way it turns, being ordered to pay compensation to one Indian subscriber and facing a customer revolt over new charging methods in the UK. An Indian consumer body ruled Vodafone Essar should pay 6,000 rupees ($128) compensation to a subscriber hit with a whopping 22,000 rupee monthly bill after making several calls to satellite phones. The body ruled the carrier didnt make clear such calls cost 500 rupees a time. Ironic, then, that in the UK clarity over billing landed the operator in hot water, with subscriber panning new pricing methods that will increase their monthly bill regardless of whether they are in contract or not. TA
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Telco Strategies 2012: Transformation and Strategies For Growth

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Telco Strategies 2012: Transformation and Strategies For Growth

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Telco Strategies 2012

15th Annual Telecom Asia Awards and Executive Conference

Transformation and Strategies for Growth

M2M barriers Enterprise opportunity Twisted radio waves Obstacles to consolidation

The biggest trends reshaping the apps sector

Taking the Next

Billing & OSS Special Report

Volume 22 Number 9 Oct/Nov 2011

12 Taking apps to the next level

20 Faster but cheaper

24 Narrowing the customer gap

26 Adapting to business change

28 Indias new telecom policy shows vision

30 Core requirements for IaaS

32 Opportunity in the enterprise

37 More than the sum of its parts

Managing Director Jonathan Bigelow jbigelow@questexasia.com Firstmile

34 Whats next? Telcos struggle in search for new revenue streams

10 Asian telecoms this month

8 Insight 33 Telecom Career 36 Events Calendar 38 Backpage Briefing

Subscribe to Asias best daily telecom news service:

Total circulation: 13,959

4th Annual Telecom Asia Readers Choice Awards

Telecom Asia China edition

4 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia

The future of multi-screen culture

John C. Tanner is global technology editor jtanner@questexasia.com

Telecom Asia Oct/Nov 2011 5

edited by John C. Tanner

Twisted tech could boost RF bandwidth 100x

Colocation demand soars in major markets

Vacancy rates drop sharply

6 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia

Chinese operators look west for growth

Telecom Asia Oct/Nov 2011 7

India paves road to consolidation

ONE MONTHS TELECOM RESEARCH

>> Mobile security spend to hit $3b by 2015

>> LTE uptake a slow burn

>> DPI equipment spend to poised triple

>> Mobile VoIP to pose growing threat

8 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia

Measuring the damage

Come back in a month

asian telecoms this month

10 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia

Telecom Asia Oct/Nov 2011 11

Taking apps to the next level

12 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia

Telecom Asia Oct/Nov 2011 13

Apps for feature phones

14 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia

The tablet effect

The next generation

Support from the majors

16 Oct/Nov 2011 Telecom Asia

On the fast track

Telecom Asia Oct/Nov 2011 17

The next growth story

Experts evaluate M2M growth barriers (scale 1 to 4)

Source: Expert interviews at the 11th Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm

M2M readiness in Asia