By: Tim Young
ommunications
service providers, particularly in the mobile space, are doing a delicate bit of tightrope-walking as of late. On one hand, the all-you-can-eat model of data usage has proven to be a bit
of a disaster, sending usage spiraling out of control and triggering massive backlash when CSPs have to engage in the inevitable dial-back of data usage…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
ust a few
short years ago, prepaid wireless service had a bad rep and was associated with a customer class that was credit-challenged, displayed minimal loyalty, and generated miniscule revenue
compared to postpaid customers. At the same time, prepaid services had an image problem of their own, both in terms of network and device capabilities as well as customer support…
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By: Michael Crossey
Today, the Big Four giants of the Internet - Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook - seem to own the consumer segment of the digital economy. Moreover, a war has been brewing between these four
players for some time now, which is seeing them increasingly collide in the markets for mobile devices, tablets, apps, content and social networking. If operators make the right moves, they can
effectively become the arms dealer in the innovation war, leveraging their unique assets to allow the Big Four players to compete with each other over richer, more relevant services, improve
customer choice and convenience and, perhaps most importantly, provide new low-friction ways to monetize their services…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
Mobile devices have ushered in a new era of personalization by their very nature. Consider how mobile devices are linked to a person, as opposed to a service address. In the many decades that
preceded the mobile revolution, communications service providers (CSPs) delivered service to a fixed residential or business address, and numerous users at that address consumed the service. Mobile
devices, and specifically smartphones, deliver service directly to an individual, and open the door to a whole world of personalization options…
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By: Tim Young
If you want to take a look at how society’s concept of the future of technology is changing, there’s perhaps no better source to examine than Star Trek. For decades, the Star Trek
franchise has given us versions of the future that are constantly updating themselves in relation to the realities of the present. In the 1960s, the heroes of the Enterprise used hand-held
communicators that could communicate real-time between planet surfaces and orbiting ships. By the 1980s, the space explorers were wearing their devices as badges, and interactions were all
voice-activated…
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By: Becky Bracken
When you think about the strides communications technology has made in an incredibly short period of time, it's nothing short of breathtaking. We might not have the teleporter just yet, but
we've got the Jetsons' video phone nailed. That's pretty impressive. But the true unsung hero of communications technology evolution is shopping. That's right, good old fashioned selling stuff to
people who don't even know what they want is driving the development of all sorts of innovations. Depressing? Perhaps…
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By: Stephen Collins
Over the past decade, the focus of broadband providers has been bringing more subscribers online and increasing the speed of their connections. Today, broadband is widely deployed, with more
than 600 million subscribers worldwide. In the United States, approximately 68 percent of U.S. homes have active broadband connections, while 95 percent of U.S. homes have access to
broadband, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Commerce. As broadband penetration has increased, so has the capacity required by subscribers…
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By: Becky Bracken
Bring Your Own Device, or the more festive sounding acronym BYOD, isn't really anything new. BYOD happens every time Steve from marketing gets the latest smartphone and needs someone from IT to
help him set up his email. BYOD happened last Christmas when the CEO got the new iPad. But, what is new is the growing realization that IT departments, network administrators, mobile departments,
legal, marketing, customer service--and every other enterprise entity you can think of—need to come together and formulate a real strategy about how to tackle handling the CEO's new iPad, Steve's
Samsung Galaxy and the myriad of other devices finding their way onto their networks…
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By: Jesse Cryderman
Show Me the Money If investors were betting that LTE buildouts would drive big gains across the infrastructure segment, this month was a wake up call. Quarterly earnings reports are beginning
to roll in, and, among other trends, they reveal a steady increase in mobile data revenue for communications service providers (CSPs) and challenging market conditions for telecommunications
infrastructure vendors. On one hand, Verizon Wireless reported record-high margins; on the other, the wireless infrastructure market hit an eight-year low…
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By: Tim Young
"We’re dealing with sophisticated customers. What’s most important to these women is individuality. I have to create things she’ll want to wear, no matter who she is.” –Oscar de la
Renta It’s not often that the world of haute couture fashion and communication services overlap. After all, we’re selling a service, and that’s a lot different from selling a consumer good,
right? Maybe so, but as CSPs shift away from a utility mindset and begin to regard themselves more as retailers than as one-size-fits-all service providers, it is important to keep in mind how
crucial a part of personalization and customized experiences can play…
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