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      Key Topics: Applications, Business Models, IP Telephony, Marketing, Mobility, Unified communications

  1. Articles from Razorsight

    razorsight.blogspot.com

    1-24 of 41 // 1 2 »

    1. AT&T Sees Billion-Dollar Opportunity in Mobile Home Management

      Explore Razorsight (May 16 2012) Business Models

      One of the biggest strategic issues for any tier-one service provider is how to select potential new businesses to drive revenue growth. To be sure, service providers in all segments have to prioritize their investment capital and human capital choices. But the largest providers in any nation have an additional challenge, namely their sheer scale. When making decisions about potential investments (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   AT&T   Comcast   Glenn Lurie

    2. Does the U.S. Really Have a “Broadband Problem?”

      Explore Razorsight (May 9 2012) Applications

      Does the U.S. Really Have a “Broadband Problem?” The latest Akamai report on the state of the global Internet continues to show the United States trailing many other nations in “broadband speed.” The United States ranks about 12th globally for broadband connection speed, in terms of the percentage of connection above 5 Mbps, for example. So there’s a problem, right?Some will cite the findings as continuing evidence that U.S. service providers (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Oecd   Federal Communication Commission   Phoenix Center

    3. Will Telcos "Think the Unthinkable?"

      Explore Razorsight (Apr 25 2012)

      by Gary Kim Are tier-one service provider strategic options that once were "unthinkable" now becoming less improbable? If some possible revenue trends materialize, what might have seemed "impossible" in the past might start looking more palatable. By 2020, for example, European telcos could see their sales fall by up to 20 percent, while; earnings (EBITDA) could even drop by 40 percent, (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   AT&T   Time Warner   Cox Communications

    4. States Moving to End Universal Service

      Explore Razorsight (Apr 18 2012) Applications , Marketing

      by Gary Kim There are important regulatory developments occurring at the state level these days. In a significant development for the landline telecommunications business, states are passing or considering laws to end the requirement that phone companies provide "universal service" to every potential customer in competitive markets. For anybody who has been in the telecom business for a while (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Cox Communications   Time Warner Cable   Comcast

    5. Verizon Ends "Naked DSL" Sales, Pointing out an Important Strategic Issue

      Explore Razorsight (Apr 10 2012) Applications , Business Models

      by Gary Kim Verizon Communications in early May 2012 will stop offering "naked DSL," (high-speed Internet without landline phone service)  IDG reports. That change, in itself, might not be a huge deal. But does point out a big strategic focus any fixed network telco has to be thinking about, and doing something about. Only about 10 percent of Verizon's DSL subscribers use the stand-alone (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   DSL   Gary Kim   Telecommunications Industry Association

    6. Telecom "Conventional Wisdom" Often is Wrong

      Explore Razorsight (Apr 3 2012) IP Telephony , Unified communications

      In the global telecom business, conventional wisdom” sometimes is quite wrong. SIP trunking, hosted IP telephony and VoIP provide examples. The conventional wisdom is that SIP trunking saves end users money, that hosted IP telephony is a bigger business than Centrex was, or that VoIP is a business tier-one telcos “need” to aggressively pursue. But all three might be “wrong.” The point is that (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   PBX   Insight Research   Insight Research Corp.

    7. Legacy Revenue Still Drives Business Results in Global Industry

      Explore Razorsight (Mar 27 2012) Applications , Business Models , IP Telephony , Marketing

      There are some interesting conclusions one might draw about the relative importance of several service provider products in global telecom markets, and in the United States, in the latest communications industry revenue forecast published by the Telecommunications Industry Association. 

      (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Telecommunications Industry Association

    8. Does Bandwidth Want to be Free?

      Explore Razorsight (Mar 20 2012)

      Does Bandwidth Want to be Free? Some 10 ten years ago, Bill Gates irritated other executives in the communications ecosystem by arguing that “bandwidth wants to be free.” To be sure, Gates meant that bandwidth would not be constraint to creating new services and apps, as computing cycles and storage had ceased to be a fundamental problem in the software business.  But Gates was substantially correct. How many service provider (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Bill Gates   Moore

    9. Banks and Telcos Have One Thing in Common, One Key Difference

      Explore Razorsight (Mar 13 2012) Business Models , Marketing , Mobility

      What does VoIP have in common with mobile banking and commerce? In both cases, those new ways of doing things are a threat to the bulk of existing industry revenues. The difference is that VoIP threatens telecom revenues, while mobile commerce and banking threaten the banking business. But here’s the nexus: mobile service providers arguably are better positioned than banks to turn the new (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Bank of America   Richard Crone

    10. Why Mobile Payments, Banking, Advertising Matter for Mobile Service Providers

      Explore Razorsight (Mar 6 2012) Business Models , Marketing , Mobility

      While delivering a speech at the San Diego Social Media Symposium in early March, hosted by Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, one issue among the “five top trends in mobile marketing” was “mobile commerce,” broadly including the use of a mobile to shop, buy things and conduct transactions. It might be obvious why "mobile" is going to be important for marketers. It isn’t always intuitive why mobile commerce (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Starbucks   European Commission   European Union

    11. Key Global Changes Require New Retail Service Plans Key Global Changes Require New Retail Service Plans

      Explore Razorsight (Feb 28 2012) Marketing , Mobility

      Global mobile service providers face several key challenges, including competition from over the top app providers, new competitors, bandwidth demands that threaten to outstrip capacity and profit-robbing expensive smart phones. Also, value is shifting to other parts of the ecosystem, in particular apps and devices, say Susan Simmons,  Senior Vice President & Managing Director, CSMG and Todd (Read Full Article)

    12. What’s the Difference Between “Out of Territory” and “Over the Top?”

      Explore Razorsight (Feb 23 2012) Applications , Business Models

      Selling services “out of market,” using another provider’s facilities, is a relatively new development in the U.S. telecom business. But “over the top” applications and services delivered to any Internet user, on any network, is the way most of the Internet applications business works. But there are growing indications that “out of territory” and “over the top” could be a major new direction (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Google   Time Warner Cable   Comcast

    13. New Mobile Devices are Changing Behavior

      Explore Razorsight (Feb 21 2012) Mobility

      New Mobile Devices are Changing Behavior Wireless and untethered devices are starting to change the ways people interact with, and consume, all sorts of media and content. In 2011, the majority of all mobile phone owners consumed mobile media on their smart phones and tablet devices, marking an important milestone in the evolution of mobile from primarily a communication device to a content consumption tool. At the end of 2011, more (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Google   Apple   NPD

    14. How Fast is Mobile Bandwidth Demand Growing?

      Explore Razorsight (Feb 14 2012) Mobility

      How Fast is Mobile Bandwidth Demand Growing? Bandwidth planning has become a tricky business since data traffic completely displaced voice as the driver of consumption. Not only is demand more variable and uncertain, growth is more dynamic, by an order of magnitude or two. That raises an obvious question for mobile service providers: how much bandwidth do they need to be ready to supply to customers? The question might be easier to answer (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Cisco   AT&T

    15. How Well Will Industry Handle Huge Product Transitions? How Well Will Industry Handle Huge Product Transitions?

      Explore Razorsight (Feb 1 2012) Applications , Business Models

      How Well Will Industry Handle Huge Product Transitions? How Well Will Industry Handle Huge Product Transitions? Whatever else you might say about the global telecom business, there is no shortage of understanding that fundamental changes are happening and that huge challenges must be overcome. Rapidly evolving mobile Web technologies have introduced a period of hyper-competition in the mobile sector, analysts at Deloitte say. As a result, new entrants are chipping away at incumbent advantages and profits. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Martin Geddes   AT&T   Time Warner Cable

    16. Sometimes Not Matching Competitor Offers is the Wise Strategy

      Explore Razorsight (Jan 25 2012) Marketing

      France Telecom says it will not match the low-cost mobile offers recently launched by Iliad because such aggressive pricing would be bad for network quality and innovation in the long-run, says France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard. That Orange won't compete on price might strike you as unwise. Goldman Sachs, for example, forecasts that Iliad's market entry will cause France Telecom to lose a (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   France Telecom   AT&T   Goldman Sachs

    17. No “Disruption” in Global Telecom Business?

      Explore Razorsight (Jan 19 2012)

      No “Disruption” in Global Telecom Business? Among the favorite words and concepts one hears in the software and hardware business is “disruption,” the process by by which new entrants attack and displace former industry leaders. The same idea can be applied in the telecom business. But  some proponents of “disruption” would say “not much has changed” in telecom, from the standpoint of “new entrants” displacing “industry leaders.” But it (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Google   AT&T   Apple

    18. "Mobile" Seems to be part of the Answer to Almost Any Set of Key Communications Questions

      Explore Razorsight (Jan 10 2012) Business Models

      "Mobile" Seems to be part of the Answer to Almost Any Set of Key Communications Questions Hindsight, as they say, is “20/20. ” One frequently can look backwards and see how difficult it is to “predict the future” where it comes to communications on a global level. In 2004, for example, the International Telecommunications Union still was saying that “In general, the majority of the least developed countries (LDCs) have made little progress in the past five years in closing the gap (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   International Telecommunications Union   Federal Communication Commission

    19. Razorsight Leaders Emphasize Profitability Analysis in Latest Pipeline Magazine

      Explore Razorsight (Jan 9 2012)

      Check out today's edition of mobile industry mag Pipeline for an informative Razorsight profile. CEO Charlie Thomas and CTO Suren Nathan are quoted at length, elaborating on the risks service providers are facing, "especially in the face of bandwidth-hog OTT players and companies like Google roaring into the communications space. It's through data [and profitability] analytics that they can (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Google   Charlie Thomas

    20. Congrats to Our Blog Content King

      Explore Razorsight (Jan 6 2012) Business Models

      Gary Kim, who consistently commands the Razorsight blog byline, has been recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Power Influencers in Mobile. In fact, Gary comes in a strong second overall (giving him something to shoot for next year). According to Forbes: # Number 2 at this strategic level is Gary Kim, author of the IPCarrier blog, which tracks business model innovation in advanced (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Gary Kim

    21. “Dumb Pipe” is Foundation, But Services Already are the Rule

      Explore Razorsight (Jan 3 2012) Applications , Business Models , Marketing

      As much as service providers across the communications business worry about the threat of value erosion, with increasing amounts of the actual value of broadband-enabled applications shifting to devices and applications, it does appear that service providers are making adjustments. And those adjustments seem to be coming in both the transport business, which might the closest analogy to a (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Ericsson   Gary Kim   Telecom Ramblings

    22. Service Providers Want Both Simplicity and Sophistication: Can it be Done?

      Explore Razorsight (Dec 21 2011) Business Models

      Service Providers Want Both Simplicity and Sophistication: Can it be Done? There always is a tension between operational simplicity and sophistication in retail customer packaging and network management. Simple approaches often are cheaper, but at the cost of forfeiting creation of more-nuanced subscriber plans. Likewise, policy management tools that can prioritize and shape bandwidth consumption can help service providers alleviate congestion and provide higher end (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Gary Kim   Telecommunications Industry Association   Crtc

    23. Why Entertainment Video Has to Go “Over the Top”

      Explore Razorsight (Dec 13 2011) Applications

      There’s a new wrinkle to the ‘over the top” entertainment video issue, namely that with the advent of tablets and powerful smart phones, consumers will demand video on those devices, and therefore the new issue is only “how will video be delivered over the top; by whom; and how will users pay for it?” A November 2011 survey of 1.025 consumers by JZ Analytics, sponsored by Broadcom Corp., (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Microsoft   Google   AT&T

    24. Do Data Hogs Cause Peak-Hour Broadband Congestion?

      Explore Razorsight (Dec 6 2011) Applications

      It is an unquestioned fact that a small percentage of broadband users, on virtually any network, use vastly more data than typical users do. The top one percent of data consumers account for 20 percent of the overall consumption, for example. But are heavy users the problem? The question might seem silly. If the big problem for an access provider is peak hour congestion, then heavy users (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Benoit Felten   Gary Kim   IP Carrier