.gif)
Newspeak
European Communications presents its regular round-up of the latest developments in the world of telecommunications
Wholesale expansion
The wholesale telecom market is now growing faster than the retail telecom market in Europe, according to industry analyst, Ovum.
Based on the latest revenue figures available for 22 leading European telecom companies, Ovum found that wholesale revenues had grown by 12 per cent in contrast to 8 per cent for retail revenues over the 2003-2004 period, reaching a total of over $47bn.
“This trend demonstrates the growing importance of wholesale as a customer segment but also shows how increasingly competitive the retail market has become,” says David James, Senior Analyst with Ovum’s wholesale team.
The research found that the top-five wholesalers account for nearly 60 per cent of wholesale revenues and that domestic wholesale revenues still dominate and grow faster than international revenues: they reached $32.2bn in 2004, up 13.6 per cent from 2003. In the same period, European international wholesale revenues grew by 9.5 per cent in the year to nearly $15.2bn.
“This is the result of carriers’ response to regulatory action,” says James. “They reacted by rolling out regulated wholesale access products, and by introducing additional unregulated value-added wholesale services.”
The healthy growth of the international wholesale market reflects the increasing globalisation of industry and commerce and the need of end-customers to connect with more offices, customers and partners overseas. Few service providers can meet all of their customers’ requirements and most need to use international wholesale services bought from other carriers.
Although revenues from voice traffic still dominate both domestic and international wholesale markets in Europe, revenues from wholesaling non-voice services are growing significantly faster. This is particularly true in domestic markets, where the breadth of services being wholesaled has dramatically increased to include local-loop unbundling for other licensed operators, to sophisticated packages of services for virtual network operators and resellers.
“Prices for wholesale voice will continue to fall for the foreseeable future, with end-user VoIP yet to make a significant impact on revenues from telcos’ traditional cash cow,” says James. “In contrast, there is much greater opportunity for innovation and differentiation in the non-voice arena than there is in voice. Wholesalers must expand their portfolio of non-voice services now if they are to survive.”
Details: www.ovum.com
A ripping yarn
Using recently declassified information, a new book, Colossus: Bletchley Park’s Greatest Secret by Paul Gannon, tells the untold story of the Second World War’s intelligence contest: a gripping account of the invention of the world’s first true computer, Colossus, and the crucial part it played in winning the war.
We are all now familiar with the cracking of the Enigma code and the extraordinary advantage it gave the Allies during World War Two. But how many of us know that there was an even more significant code that had to be cracked, that of the Nazi military’s High Command, and that it took the invention of the world’s first computer of its kind, a machine dubbed Colossus, to decipher this code?
Paul Gannon tells the fascinating story of the making of Colossus, drawing on recently declassified state documents to show how key strategic, diplomatic and military decisions were made by the British wartime government largely because of information gleaned from the interception of German internal messages that Colossus could translate.
Equally intriguing is the post-war history of the machine, which was dismantled after VE Day and hidden away in a storeroom for some fifty years. Only when it was brought back up into public view, repaired and reassembled did it become apparent just what a landmark achievement it constituted. For Colossus was nothing short of the first true computer.
Paul Gannon is a journalist and writer who specialises in information and communications technology. Colossus: Bletchley Park’s Greatest Secret is published by Atlantic Books, hardback, £25.
Details: www.colossus-book.co.uk
The telecomms crystal ball
The total number of paid-for connections will exceed four billion in the year ahead, according to the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) practice at Deloitte, which has announced its predictions for the telecommunications industry in 2006.
Tony Cooper, telecommunications partner at Deloitte comments: “2006 will see a record reached for the highest level of connectivity in the telecommunications market, across Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN), mobile communications, broadband connectivity, and Voice over IP. Connections will be driven by existing users adding to their portfolio of communications tools as well as some people becoming connected for the first time. 2006 will turn out to be a frustrating year for 3G, with slow take up. 2G will represent the majority of revenues, profits and growth for the mobile sector. 2006 will also see phone manufacturers focusing more attention on design, with style over function becoming more important with consumers willing to pay a ‘style premium’.
“The telecommunications industry should not overlook a significant source of new connections – machines. Previous disappointments arising out of poor performances are likely to become a thing of the past in 2006, as many of the underlying enablers for machine-generated communications matures. This promises to provide a range of benefits for both consumers and businesses,” he continues.
“2006 will be the year operators, both fixed and mobile, realise that the frenzied quest for speed does not always lead to success, as crucial factors such as real market needs and profitable business models may be overlooked. Bandwidth is undoubtedly important, but it is not as important as many other variables in the telecommunications world – particularly services.
“The communications industry will undergo intense M&A activity in 2006. Telecommunications companies that have amassed significant cash piles and are ready to invest – as are other potential acquirers, including, significantly, financial institutions and companies from other sectors looking to diversify.
“Convergence will remain a key focal point for companies in 2006, but to avoid being bystanders, telecommunications operators will need to develop business models that generate additional connectivity revenues for an event, or as part of a service charge.”
“This year should also see two different types of VoIP take shape. Managed VoIP services are likely to allow operators to generate a positive cash flow. However, ad hoc VoIP will likely struggle to gain a mass market, revenue-generating following.”
Details: www.deloitte.co.uk
Call to action
The Parlay Group has put a call to action to the telecommunications industry to utilise open standards and common interfaces in the implementation of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The Parlay Group is comprised of member organisations including major mobile operators (Orange), and vendors such as AePONA and BEA Systems. The aim of the consortium is to develop open, technology-independent APIs that enable the development of applications that operate across multiple, networking-platform environments.
“IMS promises to bridge the fixed-mobile divide and has immense power to bring innovative applications to the user. However, to reap the benefits of IMS, operators must be empowered with the toolkit necessary to implement services on the system quickly. Operators need to turn around content at the speed of today’s commerce,” says Zygmunt Losinksi, President of The Parlay Group.
“Users want the next best thing. To be able to offer a stream of revenue-generating services to hungry mobile consumers, operators must look at IMS, and they can’t look at IMS without considering how to interface the network with the services and application layer. This is where Parlay comes in – to manage the roll out of this system and affix services flexibly onto the network.
“Without APIs and open standards, operators will be lost in a forest of possibilities. We are trying to provide a roadmap that ensures implementations of IMS are cost-effective, powerful and flexible,” concludes Lozinski.
Details: www.parlay.org
Share this article with others
Post to del.icio.us
Printed from http://www.eurocomms.com/features/111095/Newspeak.html
Comment on this article
Skip to comments
We encourage users to analyse, comment on and even challenge European Communications's articles, including the one above - 'Newspeak'
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site.