Ken Rehbehn
Principal Analyst
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Research Categories
Mobile Infrastructure, Service Provider Strategies
Ken Rehbehn is a principal analyst with Yankee Group's Network Research team. As a 4G mobile wireless infrastructure analyst, Ken tracks radio access network (RAN) technology solutions operators deploy to deliver value to consumers, enterprises and government. With over 25 years of experience in the field, Ken provides insight into 3G and RAN trends including LTE, HSPA and WiMAX, as well as supporting femtocell and Wi-Fi offload solutions.
Before joining Yankee Group, Ken served as a strategic marketing director for Alcatel-Lucent and as a wireless infrastructure analyst at Current Analysis. Prior to joining Current Analysis, Ken served as director of product management at Megisto Systems, Inc., a startup equipment vendor producing next-generation data gateway solutions for GSM and UMTS networks. At Megisto, he led the product management staff to define the product and provide support for the sales staff in the field. Before that, Ken worked at Visual Networks as an ATM product line manager as well as a member of the CTO's staff. In addition to Visual Networks, his professional career has included software development and architectural design for X.25 packet switching, frame relay, and network management technologies while at GTE Telenet, Sprint and Netrix.
Ken has served as the editor of several Frame Relay Forum Implementation Agreements and IETF standards track RFCs, and he holds a patent for Frame Relay and ATM service management mechanisms. He publishes in leading industry publications and frequently speaks at industry conferences as well as vendor and operator briefings. In addition to publishing opinions on trends and the competitive positions of vendors supplying solutions, Ken provides consulting and training to operators, vendors and enterprises. He holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland.
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Faced with burgeoning data demands after its successful iPhone launch in the Japanese market, SoftBank moved to grab 30 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum. The move positions SoftBank for sustained mobile broadband traffic growth while highlighting early vendor TD-LTE innovation with small cells, beamforming and Cloud RAN.
Jan. 31, 2012 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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Offloading mobile data traffic to the Internet via Wi-Fi hotspots has emerged as a vital tool in the operator's toolkit. Next Generation Hotspot furthers this trend by bringing important features for automatic service detection, authentication and air interface security to Wi-Fi technology, though operators must overcome cost, deployment, integration and business model challenges if the technology is to take off.
Dec. 22, 2011 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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The collapse of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger has left everyone wondering how these two companies will survive the breakup. The separation agreement between the two companies gives cash and spectrum to T-Mobile while opening the possibilities of a joint operation agreement to AT&T. The result is better services and choice for consumers than the merger would have yielded--but it also means AT&T's challenge as a mobile broadband competitor just got a lot harder.
Dec. 21, 2011 | Report | by Carl Howe | CO-AUTHORS: Ken Rehbehn
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The world is in transition and in the year ahead, mobile will be both the protagonist and the subject of this instability. During the last five years, networks and the information they carry have plugged more than 2 billion new participants into the mobile economy. The winners in this landscape will be those players that can scale quickly and treat each user as a unique customer.
Dec. 6, 2011 | Report | by Yankee Group | CO-AUTHORS: Jason Armitage, Carl Howe, Sandra Palumbo, Vince Vittore, Declan Lonergan, Eugene Signorini, Ken Rehbehn, Chris Marsh, Sheryl Kingstone, Wally Swain, John Keough, Nick Holland, Brian Partridge
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Nokia Siemens Networks announced it is focusing its future investment in a smaller set of core business areas. Through this move, the company aims to boost its competitive edge and set a foundation for a profitable business going forward, but excellent execution and additional market trust is required for success.
Nov. 30, 2011 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn | CO-AUTHORS: Vince Vittore, Sheryl Kingstone, Brian Partridge
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CSP success or failure is dependent on delivering the best possible connected user experience. The LTE ecosystem is heading on a collision course with failure if it relies too long on circuit switched fallback for voice services over LTE.
Oct. 26, 2011 | Report | by Brian Partridge | CO-AUTHORS: Ken Rehbehn
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By 2015, LTE or WiMAX technologies will be in the hands of almost 700 million mobile users worldwide. Increased customer access to ubiquitous, high-speed and low-latency connectivity presents enormous opportunities for companies across the mobile ecosystem. As 4G goes mass market, it will drive a new wave of innovation in communications, devices and apps/content.
Oct. 24, 2011 | Report | by Declan Lonergan | CO-AUTHORS: Ken Rehbehn
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At next week's 4G World 2011 show in Chicago, attendees will hear about the latest and greatest innovations across the 4G ecosystem--everything from mobile cloud, VoLTE, M2M and next-gen networks and strategies to ensuring optimal 4G customer experience. Yankee Group cuts through the vendor noise to help attendees focus their time on the most important happenings at the event.
Oct. 20, 2011 | Report | by Brian Partridge | CO-AUTHORS: Sandra Palumbo, Ken Rehbehn, Sheryl Kingstone, Wally Swain, John Keough, Nick Holland
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Acquiring Motorola for $12.5 billion will make Google's Android platform even more successful by giving Google a 17,000-patent war chest for patent battles, a standardized end-to-end mobile experience for Android users and a Google-controlled platform for mobile payments. However, Google's biggest challenge will be managing Android as an open platform while making devices for that platform--a feat no other technology company has previously achieved.
Aug. 15, 2011 | Report | by Carl Howe | CO-AUTHORS: Jason Armitage, Eugene Signorini, Ken Rehbehn, Wally Swain, Dmitriy Molchanov, Nick Holland, Denise Lund
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Ericsson announced its agreement to acquire B/OSS software heavyweight Telcordia, putting the industry on notice it intends to drive more of the ecosystem business battle toward software and services and, in turn, put a greater emphasis on connected experience. Its portfolio isn't yet complete, but it just scored a major tactical win.
Jun. 15, 2011 | Report | by Susan McNeice | CO-AUTHORS: Jennifer Pigg, Ken Rehbehn, Sheryl Kingstone, Brian Partridge
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AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile solves its spectrum problems in key markets, most notably New York. But it also creates opportunities for other operators to grab the leftovers in markets that end up with AT&T owning too much spectrum.
Jun. 9, 2011 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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Cassidian and Alcatel-Lucent are quick-stepping to deliver LTE functionality in the 400 MHz band typically used for Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA). The move accelerates availability of advanced mobile broadband communications for European emergency and security services. Unfortunately, lack of harmonization, poor propagation characteristics and limited bandwidth makes this a stopgap effort until the European Community formally allocates dedicated public safety spectrum for LTE.
May. 26, 2011 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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After another year of stunning growth and profitability, Huawei announced bold forays into the consumer and enterprise segments of the communications industry. It's a smart bet, to be sure, but the shift will most certainly be chaotic. Huawei's competitors will be on the lookout for opportunities to exploit any weaknesses in time-to-market, solution completeness or organizational strength as these changes take place in the coming months.
May. 16, 2011 | Report | by Susan McNeice | CO-AUTHORS: Vince Vittore, Ken Rehbehn
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This year's Mobile World Congress showed operators how to further squeeze efficiencies from HSPA+ and LTE build-outs through deployment of integrated antennas and expanded use of small cells. While these are early days, operators must start factoring these options into future network build-out plans.
Feb. 25, 2011 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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In the lead-up to Mobile World Congress 2011, Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) launched its new lightRadio portfolio and made a significant break from traditional base station deployment models....
February 9, 2011 | Blog | by Ken Rehbehn
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With its dramatic departure from traditional base station form factors, Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio promises operators opex cost savings, easier cell siting, deployment flexibility and a future-proof foundation. But competitors pursuing comparable strategies can challenge much of its vision.
Feb. 9, 2011 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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Looking ahead to next week's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Yankee Group sees apps and devices grabbing the headlines once again. But MWC will also foster critical innovation in enterprise mobility, NFC and IMS, to name just a few. Meanwhile, the cold war between mobile network operators and over-the-top players will show no signs of thawing.
Feb. 9, 2011 | Report | by Declan Lonergan | CO-AUTHORS: Jason Armitage, Susan McNeice, Jennifer Pigg, Ken Rehbehn, Chris Marsh, Wally Swain, Nick Holland, Brian Partridge, Chris Nicoll
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Small-cell strategies promise mobile network operators (MNOs) solutions for tough coverage and capacity problems. As small-cell deployments expand to include metro femtocell solutions, vendors and MNOs should leverage the benefits of a neutral metro femtocell host.
Jan. 25, 2011 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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The push to leverage part of the U.S. digital dividend to deliver a nationwide interoperable mobile broadband network is gaining momentum. While emphasis has been on capex funding, government agencies need to consider the long-term opex impact. Addressing this impact, however, can bring opportunities for equipment suppliers and public mobile network operators.
Dec. 30, 2010 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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Verizon Wireless held a press conference today to herald its December 5 live launch of a new national LTE network. While a scrappy MetroPCS may have beat Verizon to the punch in getting a revenue-bearing U.S....
December 1, 2010 | Blog | by Ken Rehbehn
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Regulators are allocating spectrum bands to deliver 4G high-speed mobile Internet service across a wide range of frequencies. But the quest for bandwidth is harming prospects for 4G device economies of scale, operator competitiveness and 4G global data roaming. Operators and regulators must address spectrum harmonization, not just carve out bandwidth.
Oct. 12, 2010 | Report | by Ken Rehbehn
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At the 2010 APCO conference in August, announcements from Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens and Motorola pointed to rapidly heating competition for new high-speed broadband wireless public safety network build outs in the United States: Alcatel-Lucent launched its partnership with U.S....
September 7, 2010 | Blog | by Ken Rehbehn
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The Wall Street Journal reported today that Nokia Siemens Networks is poised to purchase Motorola s mobile infrastructure business for $1.2B. Motorola would retain its potent public safety line-of-business along with the aging iDEN push-to-talk equipment line....
July 18, 2010 | Blog | by Ken Rehbehn
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Engadget reports ATT has tagged Alcatel-Lucent as the culprit behind sluggish iPhone4 upload performance. According to Engadget, ATT pointed to a network software fault that will be quickly addressed by the vendor....
July 7, 2010 | Blog | by Ken Rehbehn