Eric Mauskopf, Business Development, YouTube

Eric Mauskopf, Business Development, YouTube is delivering the opening keynote on Day Two of the Broadband LATAM conference, taking place on 2 – 3 July 2013 at the Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ahead of the show we speak to him about his role at YouTube, what he’s working on right now and what YouTube plans are for future growth.

First up, what excites you most about your role at YouTube?

I was fortunate to join YouTube at the beginning of our mobile efforts, when we were working with operators to bring video to phones. We did not lack for sceptics, but we worked hard and delivered an engaging video experience that users could enjoy at home or on the go. People watch more than 25 per cent of all YouTube videos on their mobile device, and this number keeps growing. YouTube’s device partnerships will be a catalyst for even more users to experience YouTube in the years to come.

I believe we are playing a key role in changing how the world is informed and entertained. With more than seven billion people on earth, only two billion have ever accessed the internet, and only one billion have smartphones. Our device efforts are the likely means of reaching those people who have not yet had access to internet services. As the past years have shown us, once you give people access to information and commerce, they innovate in ways we could not have expected and end up changing the world.

What’s the tech gadget that you can’t live without at the moment?

My smartphone has become an integral part of my everyday life but I think the real question for me is what apps can’t I live without? There are probably ten apps I depend upon throughout the week. One of my favourite new apps is “Get It Now”, which matches customers who’d like to have an item delivered with couriers and bike messengers who have the free capacity to deliver this item. I tend to use it for delivering food from my favourite San Francisco restaurants that haven’t arranged their own delivery service.

What cool new things are you working on right now?

Over the past year, I helped incubate a new business focused on cross platform multi-screen experiences, the YouTube app on your smartphone or tablet can automatically pair with the YouTube experience on your SmartTV. This enables seamless sharing of content through our “send to TV” feature, selecting videos on your mobile screen that you’d like to view on your connected TV screen, while using your mobile screen for command and control or queuing up the next video to watch.

Where are the most promising opportunities for growth for YouTube in the next couple of years?

The majority of my attention is focused on leading our emerging market device partnership efforts, where a tremendous number of users are coming online for the first time, and primarily doing so on mobile devices.  Working with operators and device manufacturers to enable a good YouTube experience from day one of a user’s internet exposure is key to this mission. With 72 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, content discovery is of utmost importance. Depending on the region and language, different YouTube content will be more relevant to those users. Whether it’s a feature phone, smartphone, tablet, or connected TV, we want to surface the content users’ care most about to the screen closest to their eyes.

YouTube has increased its focus on monetising content in recent years? Would you explore models that would remove in-video advertising for consumers?

Today, there are more than one million channels generating advertising revenue on YouTube. Our goal is to give video creators more flexibility to monetise and distribute their content to reach the fan communities that made their channels a hit, including our recently announced plans for a self-service subscription model.

My TV, Blu-ray player, console and phone are all from different manufacturers but all have custom YouTube interfaces. Why are all of these necessary?

The TV is often the largest and most beautiful screen in the home for enjoying videos. Regardless of your brand of TV, game console, or phone, you should be able to enjoy YouTube on any device without having to re-learn how to use the application for that specific device. That’s simply not the case at the moment. With new features like our “send to TV” that automatically pair your phone and your TV, and efforts with partners to improve latency and performance, we are actively working to simplify the experience across the device ecosystem.

BitTorrent usage is dropping in the US as consumer switch to paid services, report claims

The amount of traffic generated in the US by BitTorrent, the file sharing internet protocol , has dropped significantly of late, according to a report from policy control company Sandvine.

Over the past six months BitTorrent accounted for 9.2 per cent of peak-period traffic, down from 11.3 per cent in 2012 and 17.2 per cent in 2011, the report said. Sandvine attributes the drop in the usage of the file sharing protocol to the increasing availability of subscriber-based, paid-for, on-demand content from applications such as Netflix. Indeed, online video service Netflix maintained a 29 per cent peak-period traffic share in the US, ahead of YouTube, which climbs to 15.4 per cent compared to 13.8 per cent in 2012.

“We believe as more over-the-top Real-Time Entertainment sources are made available to subscribers in the future, the rate of decline in share will begin to accelerate,” the report claims.

The report’s author also said that the decline in BitTorrent usage was foreseen and that it had previously predicted that by 2015 BitTorrent usage would drop to less than ten per cent in North America, a figure it said has now already come to pass.

However, in the Asia Pacific region, where applications such as Netflix are less entrenched, BitTorrent sits at the top spot for peak period internet traffic usage.

As far as Europe is concerned, BitTorrent peak period traffic share remained high at 40.63 per cent, but the report believes that like the US, its days of traffic domination are on the wane. “Subscribers are likely using applications like BitTorrent to procure audio and video content not available in their region,” said the report. “We believe that Filesharing’s share of traffic may have finally reached its peak in terms of traffic share and will begin to experience a steady and significant decline, as paid OTT video services continue to expand their availability throughout the region.”

In a 2011 interview with Telecoms.com, BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker said that ISPs should be incentivising consumers to use the protocol. “It is very network friendly, and represents an instance where applications, user and network provider all work together to solve the problem [of network congestion].”

The Broadband World Forum is taking place on the 22nd – 24th October 2013 at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, Amsterdam. Click here to pre-register for the event.

Point Topic estimates the total cost at €80bn

Providing super-fast broadband to the whole of the European Union could be much less expensive than previously thought, according to UK research firm Point Topic, which estimates that the whole economic area could be served for €80bn – less than a third of the €270bn estimated by the European Commission in its Digital Agenda.

Defined as delivering at least 30Mbps of data downstream, super-fast broadband services have long been championed by EC Commissioner Neelie Kroes, who has taken on the mission of ensuring that all EU households can access these speeds by 2020.

However, both operators and national governments have balked at the cost, so it will come as welcome news to many that the cost may be much lower.

The main reason for Point Topic’s reduced estimate is that super-fast networks have already covered about half of European homes, using a variety of technologies in addition to expensive fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), such as cable and copper-based VDSL, which Point Topic has used as the main connection method in urban areas in its models.

Of the €80bn total, around two-thirds (or €52bn) will be needed to hook up the areas of lowest population density, defined as having less than 100 people per square kilometre.

Tim Johnson, lead author of the report, said: “Most of that amount will have to be funded by the taxpayer in one way or another,” says Johnson, “and we think that’s about as much as they will stand for. But we think that a large proportion of rural Europe will get wired up on that basis.”

MoCA is driving home networking sales, says Infonetics

Multimedia over coax (MoCA) helped drive the global home networking device market to $4.9bn in the second half of 2012, up five per cent on a sequential basis, according to US firm Infonetics Research.

MoCA-enabled video gateways are identified as a key growth area for home networking device manufacturers, particularly those targeting North America.

Deployments of MoCA-enabled set-top boxes are also “slowly reaching a boil”, according to Jeff Heynen, directing analyst at Infonetics, with sales estimated to have risen 23 per cent in the second half of last year alone.

Meanwhile, revenue from shipments of broadband routers grew six per cent in the second half of last year on a sequential basis, thanks to shipments of higher-end 802.11ac and 802.11n WiFi routers in North America and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa).

In-home media streaming is on the up

US broadband homes are increasingly choosing to place their router in the living room rather than home office in order to better serve their connected video devices, according to The Diffusion Group.

Over four in five US broadband households now have home networks installed – up a few percentage points from 2011 – with over a third of routers now found in ‘primary living spaces’ – nearly twice the number found in spaces dedicated to home offices.

Michael Greeson, founding partner of The Diffusion Group, observes that just a few years ago, network use was dominated by data-centric activities (email, messaging, productivity applications, etc.), with few consumers actually using their home networks to access and share digital media.

“Today, however, 62 per cent of networked households are using their network to stream digital media,” adds Greeson.

TDG believes that both router placement and primary use are highly correlated with age: the younger the head-of-household, the more likely it is that the router is located in the primary living space, and that the network is used to stream digital media.

According to TDG’s data, nearly eight in ten Millennials (aged 18 to 34 years old) use their home networks to stream media, a rate that also declines as age increases.

The submarine network extends around the Caribbean

UK-based Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) on Tuesday entered into a strategic alliance with the Caribbean’s Columbus Networks, to form a joint venture to provide wholesale bandwidth capacity in the Caribbean and Americas Region.

The venture will be called CNL-CWC Networks and in addition, CWC Wholesale Solutions, a subsidiary of CWC has entered into a separate services agreement with Columbus Networks under which Columbus will provide certain operation and monitoring services to the firm.

Between them, CWC and Columbus operate sub-sea cable networks in the Caribbean and Central American region of approximately 42,000 kilometres with connectivity to 42 countries. The joint venture company will serve as the sales agent of both for international wholesale capacity but Columbus will be the managing partner with a 72.5 per cent share. CWC Wholesale Solutions will provide support and management resources.

The companies said that demand for data capacity is growing rapidly in the Caribbean and Americas region, driven by the increasing availability of, and consumer demand for, mobile data and fixed broadband services. The interconnected networks will enable more self-healing fibre optic rings with a future planned migration to a fully meshed network environment that will significantly improve the region’s access to international capacity and better meet the increasing demands for reliability and performance, the companies said.

” In the coming months, customers will begin to enjoy much greater route choice, improved reliability and higher performance as the joint venture rolls out innovative, new service offerings spanning clear channel services, IP transit, carrier Ethernet and carrier MPLS,” said Paul Scott, president of Columbus Networks.

The Broadband World Forum is taking place on the 22nd – 24th October 2013 at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, Amsterdam. Click here to pre-register for the event.

Vodafone enters carrier services market

One week after announcing a group carrier services director, UK-based carrier Vodafone has launched a carrier services business unit, formed out of the acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide in 2012.

The new unit within Vodafone Group Enterprise, dubbed Vodafone Carrier Services, combines the carrier services of Vodafone’s operating companies and CWW into one integrated global carrier business, delivering economies of scale and giving CSPs a single interface to Vodafone, with cost savings and efficiencies for both parties when buying and selling.

The business already has more than 1,000 customers and partners around the world, the company said.

Last week, the operator announced that telecommunications services provider ACN Europe’s CEO Brian Fitzpatrick has joined Vodafone as group carrier services director, reporting to Nick Jeffery, group enterprise director.

Fitzpatrick said: “The industry needs to work together to solve the commercial, operational and technical challenges of delivering end-to-end telecoms services. Vodafone Carrier Services aims to promote collaboration in the global telecoms industry – bringing together carriers and service providers from the fixed and mobile worlds to deliver new services and drive innovation.”

The Broadband World Forum is taking place on the 22nd – 24th October 2013 at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, Amsterdam. Click here to pre-register for the event.

Korean maker Samsung said that it has developed a core technology for 5G and intends to enable users to access 5G data services by 2020.

Korean manufacturer Samsung said that it has made headway in developing core technology for 5G networks with a view to bringing data services to market by 2020, according to local reports.

The firm said that 5G speeds will allow users to download an entire movie in less than a second, according to Korea’s Yonhap news agency.  It added that users will be able to download and upload data at speeds of up to tens of Gbps, compared with the 75Mbps speeds that 4G LTE services offer today.

The Korean firm also told the news agency it has successfully tested the platform using the 28GHz spectrum band to transmit data at a speed of 1Gbps.

With LTE network deployments now underway in many countries globally, the industry is gradually beginning to turns its sight to the provision of 5G services. In April this year, UK regulator Ofcom launched an industry consultation about freeing radio frequencies for 5G services.

In October 2012, the University of Surrey also received £35m research funding for its 5G Innovation Centre, from the UK government and firms including Samsung, Huawei, Telefonica Europe and Aircom International. And in March 2013, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) established a working group to research 5G technology.

The 5G Expo is part of the LTE World Summit, taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a free pass.

Chris Chapman, ACMA Chair, has taken issue with comments from Coleago

The head of the Australian telecoms regulator has hit back at allegations that the recent spectrum auction was “damaging to the economy” and dismissed claims that one of the country’s three operators was deterred from participating by high reserve prices. The criticisms were levelled at ACMA by the CEO of spectrum auction planning specialist Coleago Consulting on Wednesday.

Coleago’s Stefane Zehle suggested that, by setting too high a reserve price for the 700MHz spectrum auction, ACMA had deterred one of the three Australian mobile operators, Vodafone’s VHA, from bidding. “ACMA’s failure could hardly be more complete,” Zehle said, arguing that the price had resulted in a 2x15MHZ swathe of 700MHz spectrum going unsold.

But ACMA chair Chris Chapman has hit back at Zehle, telling Telecoms.com that, in October 2012, Vodafone announced it did not need to buy the spectrum that was being offered in the digital dividend auction because it has sufficient spectrum to provide LTE services in the future. “Vodafone’s CEO, Bill Morrow, made this announcement two months before the Minister directed the ACMA to set the reserve price for the 700MHz band at A$1.36/MHz/pop,” Chapman said.

He added that Vodafone had also refrained from bidding for licences in the 2.5GHz band, “even though it is hard to characterise the reserve price for this band (A$0.03 per MHz/pop) as extremely high, and indeed all 2.5GHz lots were sold.”

The auction generated revenues of nearly A$2bn, yet Zehle claimed that “potentially several billion dollars of benefit to the economy had been lost,” given that the auction was estimated to deliver a net benefit to the Australian economy of between A$7bn and A$10bn.

Chapman argued that Zehle’s assessment of net benefit was well beyond figures quoted for expected auction revenue in the media and seem to be based on speculations about the overall economic benefits resulting from subsequent network rollout and operation. “Such benefits would, of course, be hard to calculate from the auction results alone,” he said.

“The ACMA expects that consumers will benefit from the substantial increase in spectrum holdings for Telstra and Optus resulting from this auction.  Telstra and Optus would not have bought this spectrum if they didn’t believe it would improve their position in offering competitive services to consumers.  Vodafone says it also intends to compete vigorously in the mobile broadband market using its existing spectrum assets.  In addition, the auction has brought a new entrant to the market (TPG Internet ) with its own spectrum holding.

“The ACMA is optimistic that all these companies will invest in the community when they commence 4G services, which will further transform the way Australians communicate and do business,” Chapman said.

On the matter of unsold spectrum, ACMA confirmed that three continuous lots, or 15MHz paired, of 700MHz spectrum remains vacant and available for allocation to the Australian industry at some future date.

The LTE Asia conference is taking place on the 18^th-19^th September 2013 at the Suntec, Singapore. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Rogerio Takayanagi is CEO of TIM Fiber, Brasil

Rogerio Takayanagi, CEO of TIM Fiber, Brazil, is speaking on Day One of the Broadband LATAM conference taking place on 2-3 July 2013 at the Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ahead of the show we speak to him about how Brazil’s broadband infrastructure is developing at a pace and how TIM Brasil is readying itself for the rapid expansion of demand for data in the country in time for the World Cup and Olympics.

The world’s eyes will be on Brazil in time for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics. What are you doing to get your networks ready for the data onslaught?

TIM has been constantly investing in its network improvement. Intelig’s acquisition in 2009 and AES’ in 2011 gave us more than 20,000Km of fibre in Brazilian territory, generating a network with more strength and resilience and a company with clear priorities. By the end of 2015 we’ll have near 80 per cent of the urban population covered with 3G, in addition to the LTE service we will launch in 2013, covering the 12 World Cup cities. The total amount invested in infrastructure will be above BRL10bn in the next two years. I believe that despite the data peak, TIM customer’s and our visitors will have a great experience during the events.

Brazil has not enjoyed the fastest broadband speeds up to now. How are you going about improving this and what technologies are you currently rolling out?

Despite the low average speed in Brazil, the market for higher speed is growing, and we’re playing an important role on this process. Our value proposition with Live TIM is centred exactly on delivering an ultra-broadband experience, offering 35Mb as the entrance speed.

We have an innovative and disruptive network architecture (FTTC), which is a hybrid solution between fibre and VDSL, instead of mainstream FTTH. It drives expansion complexity down and has a relatively low CAPEX. This is a central pillar in Live TIM’s strategy, as it not only optimises the deployment process but also home passed costs.

How are you going about making broadband more affordable for the general population?

We can offer more speed for less due to our network architecture (FTTC), which enables a high quality product at a very competitive price. Our offer is unique in the market, as we have ultra-broadband solo, with no bundles, such as Pay TV or fixed-line and no fidelity contract or fines. This is a major difference in a market dominated by bundling offers.

Regarding our geographic expansion, in 2012 we covered most areas with high ‘A/B classes’ concentration. In 2013 we have entered Class C and in 2014 we plan to focus on Class C concentration areas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

What are your plans around 4G?

We plan to launch the service this year in six cities hosting the Confederations Cup, and over the course of the year, all the 12 cities of the FIFA World Cup 2014, sticking to Anatel’s (The Brazilian Agency of Telecommunications) minimum coverage requirements.

How important is wifi offload to your rollout plans?

Wi-Fi offloading has gained significant relevance, delivering great cost and performance benefits to operators, as well as superior customer experience. We believe wifi offload for 3G is essential as data traffic and users increase, driving convenience and faster speeds usage, that’s why it’s part of TIM group strategy to improve customer satisfaction. It is a customer driven strategy.

Many of the larger operators have either deployed their own wifi hotspots or established partnerships with wifi access wholesalers, and hybrid networks are an important wave of the next years. So TIM Fiber rollout is part of this strategy, as our network helps developing spots in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro metropolitan areas. It maximizes TIM investments as the infrastructure is used both for mobile and broadband services.

What opportunities do the new cloud services provide for operators?

With SME cloud services telcos have been in a tricky position due to strong competition from IT service providers, OTTs and vendors. However, cloud services and ultra-broadband bandwidth are highly related and can help telcos to be more competitive, as it enables operators to offer a complete solution to its customers in all segments through cloud aggregation.

The operators could and should play a key role in offering end-to-end cloud solutions to the business market, as SaaS services to connected companies. On the other hand, in the consumer segment, cloud gaming and cloud storage are upcoming services experiencing a burst of growth.

What impact will improved broadband and mobile speeds have on the economy?

The impacts are difficult to measure, but easy to sense. More speed leads to a large number of possibilities and potential uses, and this boosts the economy. New services based on the faster infrastructure, new applications and new systems generate more employment that in turn generates fresh demands for services. It is a cyclical movement that benefits everyone.

What is the most exciting development you expect to see in broadband over the next 12 months?

The most exciting development will be the experience of video and the development of new video services.  There’s already a strong demand for online video, and OTT is becoming an attractive option for customers, so we believe that HD streaming of videos and films are just a small sample of the huge opportunity that will come from this segment. Additionally, operators have the chance to integrate bandwidth to content delivery and this advantage will then guide the creation of new products that will disrupt the market.