Comviva’s Mobile Data Platform Spurs Mobile Data Traffic Growth in Emerging Markets

Introduces its unique data packages for operators to bolster data traffic towards increased ARPU

- Enables 70% improvement in download speed
- 50% reduction in Total Cost to Operator through MDP

Dubai, November 27, 2011: Comviva, the global leader in providing mobile solutions beyond VAS, today introduced data packages for its Mobile Data Platform (MDP), to provide complete control of the data pipe to the operators across emerging markets including Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Comviva’s new mobile data packages introduced are designed to suit different market segments depending on the traffic volume & future growth in the subscriber base. The new packages are MDP 500 for scalability upto 500Mbps, MDP 1000 for upto 4Gbps and MDP 5000 for capacity of upto 30Gbps. These packages are designed to take care of current needs plus scalability requirements, so that capacity upgrades are non-disruptive.

Vikram Shanbhag, Vice President, Mobile Messaging Solutions, Comviva said “In the struggle to maintain a high performance network, improve scalability, encourage long term customer loyalty and provide differentiated services, operators face a challenge in managing the explosive data pipe. The exponential rise in traffic volumes has led to higher network congestion. Aligned to the expected data demand, Comviva’s future proof Mobile Data Platform supports increasing data usage while significantly reducing operators’ investment on Capex and Opex.”

“Also with the increased adoption of smart phones, subscribers expect a PC like experience on their mobile device. As the demand for mobile data is growing by leaps and bounds, operators around the world are presented with a unique opportunity to generate new revenue streams and grow their business,” further added Shanbhag.

With over 10 years of experience in managing mobile data pipes for more than 80 operators globally across 40 plus countries, Comviva is ideally placed to be the leader in evolving an operator’s mobile data strategy. Comviva’s award-winning Mobile Data Platform (MDP) enables mobile operators and wireless service providers to effectively manage, optimize and monetize the broadband data traffic to deliver a better service experience – while reducing investment in Capex and Opex. MDP is a comprehensive suite, offering acceleration, smart caching, video caching, P2P caching, policy & bandwidth management, DPI based profiling and inline billing.

According to a 2011 Cisco Report, Mobile data traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 92 percent from 2010 to 2015. Furthermore it is estimated that 2/3rd of world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2015.

About Comviva Technologies Ltd.

Comviva is the global leader in providing mobile solutions beyond VAS. With an extensive portfolio of solutions spanning VAS infrastructure, application delivery platforms and customer-facing applications, Comviva enables mobile service providers to enrich mobile users’ lives, whilst rationalizing costs, accelerating revenue growth and enhancing customer lifetime value. Comviva’s solutions are deployed by service providers in over 85 countries and power services to more than 850 million mobile subscribers globally. For more information, please visit www.comviva.com

Media Contacts
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Sundeep Mehta
Corporate Communications Comviva Technologies Limited
T: + 91 124 481 9000
pr@comviva.com

By Vikram Shanbhag, Vice President, Mobile Messaging Solutions, Comviva

In the last 48 hours that I have been in Dubai with the purpose of attending the ME Telco event, I am hearing a lot, I must say overloaded on the topic “Mobile Data”.  It’s Data, Data, everywhere, a hot topic globally more so in the MENA region, given the proliferation of smart devices, smart networks and a smart subscriber base that is looking for change. I hosted a closed door seminar yesterday wherein my close engagement with the Mobile Operator community has resulted in me sharing the thoughts below.

Today Mobile Data occupies the highest mindshare in the operator community. The profitability of telecom service provider’s data operations depends on how they act in response to the explosive growth in mobile broadband traffic. Notwithstanding the fact that the mobile data market in the MENA region is on a steep growth trajectory, 133% in the period 2009-2014, operators need to ready themselves now for even further growth. Simply augmenting the network infrastructure is a capital intensive proposition.  As competition is fierce and there are limits to data service charges to be charged to the customer, operators are faced with a trade-off between the revenue-to-capex ratio and the quality of experience on offer — unless they handle the data traffic more intelligently.

Given this operators are looking at changing the rules of the game, they are aware that standard run-of-the-mill plans and packages are history and they must innovate on creating value for every dollar that the subscriber spends on their network. Most operators have invested in advanced and stand alone solutions to address the high growth they have experienced on mobile data.  They keeping enhancing the fat pipes and have added peripheral solutions such as optimization and acceleration to manage their networks gracefully. However the outcome of this has not been impactful as envisaged and the challenges remain the same, namely how to Manage, Optimize and Monetize.  I call it the MOM challenge for the mobile operator.

“Manage” challenges would mean to deploy an intelligent policy and charging control solution that would assure proper allocation of network resources, based on subscriber’s needs and what the network can deliver.

“Optimize” challenges centre on addressing needs for faster access speeds and consistent service quality; letting subscribers enjoy an optimized mobile internet experience.

“Monetize” challenges primarily hover around restricting excessive usage by a few users whilst driving mass adoption, flexibility to create tariff plans based on speed, services, traffic, time, device type, applications, thus moving away from conventionally unmetered flat pricing propositions.

It’s not that mobile operators have not attempted to address the above challenges.  They have in fact gone ahead and deployed specialized and niche solutions to manage data traffic.  These solution modules are typically deployed by the operators from independent best-of-breed vendors whose focus is on addressing individual problems and they sure do a great job in overcoming the challenges given to them however things fail when these individual vendors need to work together and collectively offer a seamless experience for operators and their subscribers. Subscribers complain about a suboptimal usage experience and sluggish speeds, further operators are saddled with higher Capex and Opex as they need to manage multiple vendors, solutions, and equipment. The onus thus falls on the operator to envision a comprehensive blueprint at the forefront and then orchestrate the phase wise implementation of the complete infrastructure to manage the growing MOM challenge.  Larger operators with deeper pockets and a deeper technical and project management skills could manage to pull off such a feat and meet the data demands in time however others face a daunting task.

Given this fact, today operators are looking at solutions that can seriously address their end-to-end needs to the address the MOM challenge from a single vendor, wherein they are looking at an integrated, consistent, unified, solid solution for data pipe management that delivers a hassle free and smooth experience to them and their subscribers.

The solution that addresses the MOM challenge in its simplest form would compromise:

• An “Optimize” module addressing  user expectations for an enhanced Internet experience
• DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) / PCEF (Policy and Charging Enforcement Function) and PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function) modules, which would address the “Manage” and “Monetize” challenges been faced by the operator.

It’s imperative for solution offerings to keep in mind to optimize the operators spend on these modules and thereby resulting in a faster ROI. An integrated solution would surely result in reducing the operator capex and opex at the same time offer flexibility to create differentiators in their competitive markets in a timely manner. Furthermore given the exponential growth already experienced in mobile data and expected in future, the solution offering should be scalable over time, capacity and functional dimensions with minimal disruption to service. Hence operators can greatly benefit from a mobile data platform package that starts out small and can scale effectively over time.  More and more operators are now convinced with the thought that a single integrated solution to address the MOM challenge would be the way forward for them to build, address and evolve their mobile data infrastructure.  Wishing you all an exciting time at the show and in Dubai over these next two days!

Mobile video is driving data traffic on an almost all-day basis

There’s no rest for a busy network. With video now accounting for the lion’s share of mobile data traffic on wireless networks, peak demand has become an almost all-day phenomenon, running from noon to midnight daily.

According to the quarterly Mobile Analytics Report released by network optimisation firm Bytemobile, video now generates 40-60 per cent of mobile data traffic, with the 29 per cent of users who request high-resolution video hogging 45 per cent of network resources.

For those in search of a high-res YouTube experience using iOS, it seems that how you access the site counts for a lot: iPad users of the pre-installed YouTube app are served a lower-res experience, with 83 per cent of users getting 240p or less. In contrast, 69 per cent of users accessing the site through their browser got 360p, against only 14 per cent of app users.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, smartphones have moved neck-and-neck with laptops in the video usages stakes, increasing the network load of video. Android devices are level pegging with laptops, at 52 per cent; iPhone users are slightly more video-hungry, at 58 per cent.

Depending on network conditions and time of day, mobile videos stall anywhere between 5-40 per cent of the time. With video optimisation found to reduce stalling and improve Quality of Service (QoS) by between 30-50 per cent, operators resisting the urge to optimise might be interested to learn that Bytemobile found that subscribers will happily watch video for longer on networks where QoS is better: as much as double the amount of time in some cases.

Bytemobile’s report is based on data acquired from a global cross-section of its customers’ wireless networks.

Report summary:

Transformation is often associated with carriers changing internal processes, structure, or infrastructure to fundamentally change the way they operate.

But providing customers with value added services that can transform their lives, livelihoods, and the way they work is often easier, faster, and more impactful in the short term.

What is interesting is that emerging market operators have the best opportunity to affect significant positive change in their customers’ lives, as simple SMS and WAP are sufficient in bringing services which improve job prospects, incomes, and health.

This is how we have approached ‘transformation’ for this report, and we bring you case studies from around the globe highlighting the impact operators are making in people’s daily social and work lives.

This research will help you:

Pricing information: £1,495

To buy this report click here

To view a free extract of this report click here

O2 data cap protest will help out O2

The word on the wires Tuesday morning is of growing support for a consumer protest against O2 UK’s recent decision to introduce tiered data tariffs and do away with unlimited offerings.

The protest movement, which is being organised on Twitter as #O2DataDay, calls for O2 smartphone users to gobble up their entire data allowance on June 24 – the day O2 switches over to its new tariffs for incoming and upgrading users, which is also the day the iPhone 4 launches.

The idea, so telecoms.com understands, is not to bring down the O2 network, but to make the point that the carrier’s customers really want and need their unlimited data allowance.

The proposal however, is seriously misguided. If the movement gathers enough momentum, not only will it ruin the experience for all O2 customers, including those not participating in the protest by putting the network under abnormal strain, it will also generate more revenues for O2.

If new or upgrading users – which will only get the chance to sign up to one of these new contracts on the day of the protest – do participate and squander their entire data allowance in one go, they’re going to leave themselves without data for the rest of that charging period. Which means they’ll have to buy a bolt on from O2 to see them through.

A number of readers have pointed out that new and upgrading subscribers to the tiered tariffs will benefit from an introductory period where: “Unlimited data on all smartphone tariffs is a promotion until 1 October 2010″. However: “Excessive usage policy and terms apply,” to this offer too. So O2 “reserves the right to impose further charges, impose network protection controls which may reduce your speed of transmission…or disconnect your SIM”.

The majority of protesters – and we’re probably talking iPhone users here -will probably still be on their existing contracts which also allow ‘unlimited’ data usage. Although it’s never really been ‘unlimited’ anyway, because of course there’s a fair usage policy, which we understand comes into play around the 1GB mark, although that’s not apparent in O2’s terms and conditions. This highlights the logistical problem of carrying out such a protest. Not only will users have to download a heck of a lot of content to hit their limit, how will they do it? App Store apps cannot be downloaded over the air if they are larger than 10MB, so users will have to install a download manager app and then find some big file and download it in one go. They won’t be able to exit said download app and user another due to the lack of multitasking on the iPhone. Not unless they’ve installed OS4 anyway.

The final point, and this is one O2 CEO Ronan Dunne has been trying to hammer home, is that the vast majority of users will get a better deal. We’ve been here before in the fixed line broadband world. It’s only the really heavy users who will suffer – that 0.1 per cent of O2’s customer base that accounts for nearly a third of all data traffic.

Even using the iPhone to consumer data on a day to day basis, it’s pretty difficult to top 500MB in a month, so taking only the bucket of minutes into account, a good few consumers can probably lower their monthly expenditure. “We don’t think it’s fair that the many should subsidise the behaviour of the few, and we think that we have a responsibility to our customers to address this kind of imbalance,” said Dunne. “The vast majority of our users will be completely unaffected by the changes – 97% of our smartphone customers currently use less than 500MB of data every month.”

It has been a long time coming and there have been well documented issues in the interim, but O2 is finally addressing the problem. “At O2, we’re seeing a doubling of data traffic on our networks every four months,” said Dunne. “Though, the way that we charge for this data is pegged to an old flat-fee, all-you-can-eat model designed for a far less data-hungry audience.”

Dunne claims that O2 invests £1m every day in its networks and recently announced plans to upgrade the infrastructure in central London.

What’s been galling for these operators is that a small band of bandwidth hogs have been the cause of lots of the problems – sometimes as few as 5 per cent of users account for as much as 80 per cent of the traffic originated in certain locations of the network. These new tariffs are designed to profitably manage this small percentage of users, whilst also offering attractive pricing for the overwhelming majority of users whose usage is much lower.

There’s a lot of talk about the hunger for data of iPhone users, but our analysis shows that the majority of users will be comfortably served by 500MB of data per month. Indeed, there will be many users that end up paying less with the new tariff structure since they aren’t forced to take the top-end tariff plan.

O2 wants to be known as the “home of the smartphone”, but in trying to achieve that ambition is was always likely to be forced to make two big steps. The first was to ensure its network was ready to cope: pumping £500mn worth of additional investment into its network was that first inevitable step. The other was moving away from its unlimited, and from our perspective unsustainable, smartphone pricing plans.

But whilst consumer appetite for mobile data seems unlimited, one thing that most definitely is not unlimited is spectrum. Spectrum will forever remain a resource both short on supply and high in demand. Although newer technologies are able to use that spectrum more efficiently to supply more bits of data per second through each chunk of spectrum, demand is outstripping that supply. It’s only natural therefore that O2 has felt compelled to switch to a pricing model built upon the principles of distributing a finite resource, rather than one that assumed an unlimited supply.

Operators have not felt brave enough to move away from the flat-rate, largely because it has been so important in fuelling the transparency and confidence that consumers needed to feel secure in using their devices without worry of huge bills down the line. But we always felt that operators would eventually be compelled to bring tiered models to market to account for the challenges outlined above. Differentiating based on usage volume is just the start, as operators dip their toes further into experimenting with new data pricing models we can fully expect to see more customised and personalised pricing plans come to the market.

O2 has switched off the unlimited data tap

The floodgates have opened, as UK carrier O2 becomes the latest operator to put an end to all you can eat data. New and upgrading smartphone users will be affected, making the move rather timely in light of the imminent launch of the iPhone 4.

O2 UK CEO Ronan Dunne, who famously apologised for the poor performance of the O2 network in the wake of the launch of the iPhone 3G, was on hand to point out that the vast majority of smartphone users will be unaffected, it’s the heavy consumers of data that will be hit hardest.

And more importantly for O2, the company can start spinning a profit from mobile data usage. Based on current usage patterns, 97 per cent of O2 customers would not need to buy additional data allowances, as the lowest bundle – at 500MB – provides at least 2.5 times the average O2 customer’s current use, said Dunne.

“We know that customers are looking for clarity in pricing as too many offers have clauses and catches which are not easy to understand. With the wide range of internet based services now available on mobile devices we’re providing customers with generous clear data bundles that give customers freedom. This enables us to provide a better overall experience for the vast majority of customers and to better manage demand,” Dunne said.

“By doing this, we are laying the foundation for a sustainable data experience for all customers and the huge possibilities that technology will create over the coming years.”

From June 24, also known as iPhone Day, O2 will introduce three data bundles for new and upgrading smartphone customers.

O2 Smartphone Tariffs* Consumer 24 month contract

*Usual BlackBerry supplement applies

Users will also be able to buy additional data Bolt Ons which include 500MB for £5 or 1GB for £10 and O2 will send users regular text messages to help them manage their usage. Unlimited wifi will still be included through The Cloud and BT Openzone hotspots.

In related news, O2 has revealed details of its ‘Early upgrade” offering for eager iPhone users wanting the iPhone 4. It will cost £20 per month on top of the existing tariff, for the remainder of the contract; the signing of a new 18 or 24 month contract and the cost of the new hardware, which is as yet unannounced.

O2

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O2 upgrades London network to meet iPhone demand

Good news for existing smartphone users on the O2 UK network, but it’s more likely the impending arrival of the iPhone 4 later this month was the kick the carrier needed to improve its data network in the capital.

An announcement on Wednesday reveals that O2 has contracted Nokia Siemens Networks to beef up its base stations in London in order to meet growing smartphone demand.

Telecoms.com likes to think it had something to do with this. With a high concentration of iPhone users at Informa Towers we’ve been badgering the carrier for months to sort out the persistent issues with dropped calls and lack of coverage.

As Nigel Purdy, head of technology at O2 UK puts it “O2 is the home of the smartphone in the UK” and the operator, like fellow early iPhone adopter AT&T, has become infamously linked with somewhat lacking capabilities to deal with the high demand for data capacity.

But that’s all over now, O2 claims, and O2 smartphone users in London can now enjoy faster upload and download speeds, longer battery life and better coverage. Just in time too – the shiny new iPhone 4 will make its glassy presence known on the network June 24.

Purdy doesn’t shy away from the issue, “There is unprecedented demand on mobile networks, particularly in dense urban areas,” he said. And network supplier NSN has addressed these concerns before. Back in February, we spoke to Michael Matthews, head of strategy and business development at NSN about this exact problem and what NSN was doing to fix it. Memorably he replied: “We know what an iPhone can do to an Ericsson base station, it can kill it.”

The company was then working on methodology to monitor and analyze the data and signalling behaviour of different smart devices connected to the mobile network. This insight, combined with traffic growth forecasts, was used to establish a capacity improvement project for O2, upgrading only the network elements and modules identified as bottlenecks for current and future performance.

The upgrade included enhancing the signalling capacity of the network as well as modernizing the network with Flexi Multiradio base stations from NSN that increases network capacity significantly by doubling the number of mobile sectors from three to six in each base station’s area of coverage resulting in the ability to carry significantly more voice and data calls in O2’s network.

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That’s what the internet is for, right? Well, that is the dilemma with which the Informer is currently struggling. As a bit of background here, UK newspaper the Times (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International group) is just about to put up a pay wall around its digital content, and many expect the rest of News International’s portfolio to follow suit.

The big debate here centres on whether or not the strategy will work. Will people pay for content when they can just as easily get much the same stuff elsewhere for free? There’s an interesting piece on the BBC by Sean Coughlan, who argues that this is the way the internet was meant to be. It was supposed to be a repository of premium content, where sites might have a niche following of paying subscribers, rather than trying to scrape by relying on advertising revenue. The “digital hippies” ruined all that, by setting up camp and encouraging everyone to give their stuff away for free. So the challenge now is to try and convince internet users worldwide that they should actually be paying for stuff they like.

Yes the Informer’s having a bit of a grumble, and no, he’s not going to start charging for AWIW, but the point seems fair that if the content is good quality and unique, then consumers shouldn’t have too much of a problem paying for it.

This situation is really not that different to what’s taking place in the mobile world right now. Anyone who’s been to an industry event in the past 12 months or so will have heard plenty of chat among the telecoms industry’s movers and shakers about just how unsustainable the flat-rate-unlimited-data tariff model really is. It’s been a long time coming, mainly because the carriers have been understandably nervous about telling consumers that there’s no such thing as “unlimited”. But it’s finally happened: AT&T has called time on the all you can eat data buffet.

From June 7, the US carrier will discontinue its flat-rate-unlimited-usage offerings and start selling buckets of data, just like the old days. Is this bad for the consumer? AT&T says it will make mobile data more affordable for more people. It will only be the tiny percentage of so called “heavy users” who are out of pocket, but that will probably free up some network resources.

So what’s the deal? From Monday, AT&T will offer the DataPlus tariff with 200MB of data per month for $15, with users charged an extra $15 for 200MB more if they exceed that amount. While the DataPro packages provides 2GB for $25 per month, with users charged $10 for an additional 1GB of data if they exceed that amount. AT&T says that at present, around 65 per cent of its smartphone customers use less than 200MB of data per month on average, and 98 per cent of smartphone customers use less than 2GB of data a month on average.

So the reality is that, if you want to use 300MB/month, then the only option is to pay for 2GB, because it’s cheaper than paying for 400MB. Part of the point of unlimited data plans (aside from enticing customers onto the mobile internet) was that they simplified tariff structures and got rid of illogical situations like the one detailed here. Surely, after all this time, carriers can do better than this.

AT&T said it will send subscribers three text notifications or emails – after they reach 65 per cent, 90 per cent and 100 per cent of their data threshold. Smartphone users, including iPhone users, can also download an app that allows them to track data usage. This move will be watched with interest by the rest of the industry and no doubt more carriers will follow AT&T’s example.

Vodafone, for one, looks likely. Earlier this week the Big V scrapped the fair usage policy on its 500MB Flexi or Value Pack offerings, introducing out of bundle charging for pay monthly customers that go over the 500MB limit. Under the new charging structure, monthly bundle customers will pay £5 for every 500MB after the first 500MB, while customers without a monthly bundle will pay £0.50 for every 10MB after the first 25MB.

Like AT&T, Vodafone said it is introducing a real-time notification service to alert its customers to their usage patterns and be completely transparent about these charges. “The reason we’re introducing these charges is to make it fairer for everyone, and to protect our network from data abuse,” the company said.

One company that might be hit by this move is VoIP provider Skype, which finally got its service working over 3G, having released an iPhone app a couple of days ago. The big news for Skype is that there was some pent-up demand for said app, which the company claims has been downloaded over five million times already.

At present, Skype-to-Skype calls over 3G will be free (although operator data charges may still apply) and will remain so until the end of 2010. But then it looks like Skype will start charging for 3G calls.

PLUG ALERT:

Coincidentally, telecoms.com will be running a webinar on the very subject of policy management and charging models for mobile data next week, in association with Openet. When the Informer had a recent chat with Jonathan Downey, director of product marketing at Openet, Downey said that he expects an increase in the number of Kindle-like charging models, where there is no formal subscription deal in place between the operator and the consumer, but the price of the data transfer is included in the price of the content itself.

You can register for the webinar HERE.

PLUG ENDS!

There may be some truth in this as the Informer heard from the horse’s mouth just yesterday that there are numerous European negations taking place to get Spring Design’s Android e-reader that goes by the name of Alex into the hands of every Tom, Dick and Harry in Europe. But this is another market that stands on shaky ground at the moment. If you remember last week, the Informer’s chums at Informa Telecoms & Media forecast that the e-reader’s days are numbered, with strong competition coming from a wide range of consumer devices.

Research released by the analyst forecasts that e-reader sales are expected to peak at 14 million in 2013, before falling by 7 per cent in 2014, due to a shift away from dedicated e-readers – think the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook – towards multifunction device types like mobile handsets and tablet form-factor devices including the Apple iPad.

Apple says “iPad” while Asus, on the other hand says “Eee Pad”. That was the song being sung at the Computex trade show which kicked off in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, as Asus unveiled a Windows 7-based touchscreen device that will come in ten- and 12-inch in versions and is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo chipset. The tablet is expected to retail for less than $500 and will be available in early 2011. What’s not clear is whether the device will support 3G as well as wifi.

In related news, San Diego-based Qualcomm said that it has sampled its first dual-CPU Snapdragon chipsets, with the MSM8260 and MSM8660 running at up to 1.2GHz. The Snapdragon is a popular choice among the Android community, and the chipset is making waves in the smartphone, netbook and tablet sectors.

Sticking with open source operating systems, tablets and Computex for a moment, a handful of industry players got together this week to throw some support behind the Linux-based tablet movement. Texas Instruments, ARM, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Freescale announced Linaro, a not for profit open source software engineering company, tasked with providing new resources and standardised components for developers working on embedded Linux systems and middleware components.

Moving on now to Finnish-German equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), which this week appointed BT’s current head of mobile technology as its new chief technical officer, effective July 1. Hossein Moiin will report directly to NSN CEO, Rajeev Suri.

The new role of CTO was created by NSN following its 2009 reorganisation, which included the elimination of the role of chief operating officer from January 2010. In his position as CTO, Moiin will be responsible for developing and advocating the company’s technology strategy and long-term views on network architecture.

Prior to working for BT, Moiin held positions with T-Mobile, including group vice president for technical strategy and chief architect. Moiin was also chief technologist for the Network Service Provider Group at Sun Microsystems.

Now then, It was metaphysical poet John Donne who said that ‘no man is an island’. He may have been a literary genius, and the Informer is loath to suggest improvements to works that have been admired the world over for the best part of 400 years. After all, the only poem the Informer can recite from memory begins: “There was a young girl from Nantucket…”

Nonetheless, Donne would have been well advised to add some parentheses to that line, containing the words: “Apart from the Isle of Man, of course, which is clearly an island”. To be fair, it most likely didn’t scan that well.

What do you know about the Isle of Man? Probably not very much, if you’re honest. The Isle of Man is a self-governing British Crown Dependency located in the Irish Sea. It’s not part of the UK, but the UK is to all intents and purposes responsible for it; crucially in the areas of defence and foreign relations. It’s a bit like a student that lives in a different town, but comes home with holdalls full of washing that needs doing every now and again, and retains umbilical financial relations with its parents.

It’s famous in motorsport circles for its (literally) breakneck road races and, in this industry, for being an advanced testing outpost for Telefonica O2. It was the site of Europe’s first 3G network, through O2 subsidiary Manx Telecom, and Europe’s first HSDPA service as well.  That relationship has now been brought to a conclusion, though, with the sale of Manx Telecom to a pair of investment firms, HG Capital and CPS Partners for £158.8m.

Telefonica’s European strategy is all about focusing on its core markets, so it makes sense to offload the little Manx operation. It’s a shame, though, the Informer always liked the idea of the good folk of the Isle of Man getting access to cutting edge technology ahead of their megacity cousins on the UK mainland.

Telefonica’s Brazilian strategy, meanwhile, is up in the air as wrangles with Portugal Telecom continue. The Spanish incumbent and Latin American big boy has increased its offer to buy the 50 per cent of Brazilian firm Brasilcel that is owned by Portugal Telecom to €6.5bn. Telefonica had previously offered €5.7bn for the stake, an offer that was rejected, leading the firm to suggest that a hostile takeover bid for its Portugese counterpart – in which it already holds a ten per cent stake – remained an option if a sale of the Brasilcel stake could not be agreed.

Brasilcel owns 60 per cent of mobile player Vivo, which leads the Brazilian mobile market and had 53.9 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter this year, according to data from Informa’s WCIS. Telefonica is keen to merge the Vivo operation with its Brazilian fixed arm Telesp, in a bid to drive cost synergies in the market, a move which Portugal Telecom views with scepticism.

And from John Donne to another of our great poets, Homer Simpson. “You tried your best and failed miserably,” he told his son. “The lesson is: Never try.” And it’s a lesson that could easily be applied to the attempted merger of Orange and TDC’s Swiss operation, which was blocked by the Swiss competition authorities in April. This week, France Telecom quietly conceded that there was no alternative and that the two firms were ceasing discussions and withdrawing their appeal.

If the humble pie doesn’t taste too good, perhaps they could get themselves a donut. Mmmm, donuts… Is there nothing they can’t do?

Take care

The Informer

The all you can eat data buffet is closing down

The unlimited data cull continues, with US carrier AT&T calling time on its flat rate all you can eat offering from June 7.

It’s a move that’s been a long time coming, as anyone who’s been to an industry event in the past 12 months or so will have heard plenty of chat of this sort among the telecoms industry’s movers and shakers. So we can expect much more of the same.

But is it all bad for the consumer? As AT&T says, it will make mobile data more affordable for more people – users can now pick up either a $15 per month entry plan or a $25 per month plan with ten times more data.

The DataPlus tariff provides 200MB of data per month for $15, with users charged an extra $15 for 200MB more if they exceed that amount.

The DataPro packages provides 2GB for $25 per month, with users charged $10 for an additional 1GB of data if they exceed that amount.

AT&T says that at present, around 65 per cent of its smartphone customers use less than 200MB of data per month on average, and 98 per cent of smartphone customers use less than 2GB of data a month on average.

For smarthphone/iPhone/iPad etc. users, the $25 per month 2GB plan replaces the existing $29.99 unlimited plan, although existing users will be able to hang onto their tariffs. For now.

All the bundles still include unlimited wifi access at partner hotspots.

To help with bill shock, AT&T said it will send subscribers three text notifications or emails – after they reach 65 per cent, 90 per cent and 100 per cent of their data threshold. Smartphone users, including iPhone users, can also download an app that allows them to track data usage.

The US carrier also revealed that it will introduce iPhone tethering as an option when Apple releases iPhone OS4 this summer. Tethering will be available to DataPro plan users for an additional $20 per month. The company did not say whether tethering data usage would be capped.

Join telecoms.com and policy management firm Openet for a webinar on this very topic on June 9

AT&T

How does this article affect your perception of AT&T? What is this?

AT&T is Neutral

Total votes: 46

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