A Real Tsunami Warning

With ATT’s Ralph de la Vega making the stunning announcement last week that 3% of its smart phone users accounted for 40% of its network capacity while pointing a finger at video makes a very compelling story for video optimization. The iPhone has enabled and enamored so many users to access video that adoption will only grow and grow.  His announcement is equivalent to a seismograph shaking its little needle off the paper.

The long awaited video tsunami is pulling the water away from the beach now. And it’s all going to come crashing back. De la Vega hinted of usage-based charging or ‘other’ incentives to motivate users to throttle back. There will be a backlash on ATT.  Subscribers will get sensitive about dropped calls, QoS, and monitor their bills closely.  This will lead to a rash of customer service calls for credits, justifications, explanations.  Many will jump ship to Verizon. Handset makers and content providers are going to complain that uptake is slowed, etc.  (That’s another story all together regarding ‘over-the-top’ plays).

But the savvy operator will take note and gird up for this onslaught before it reaches them. As iPhone and Android devices take off worldwide, the operators that remember their Boy Scout motto, ‘Be Prepared’, are going to protect themselves with bandwidth optimization facilities such as Dilithium’s DVO. DVO provides the operator the ability to control, throttle, and reduce the impact that video puts on the network. This is just the beginning.

Read More Here:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/09/technology/AP-US-TEC-ATT-Data-Usage.html?_r=1&hpw

Paid vs Free Content

Interview with the MEF (Mobile Entertainment Forum).
Straight from Singapore, Telecom TV’s Asia correspondent Simon Kearney meets with Suhail Bhat, the Mobile Entertainment Forum’s Policy and Initiatives Director to talk about paid vs. free content.