Yankee Group perspective: Just as network software systems are undergoing massive change, network operators are also transitioning from legacy architectures to more flexible and robust platforms and service control architectures to support thousands of new services powered by the Anywhere Network. Yankee Group believes service delivery architectures will transform the Anywhere Network to deliver value-added services to connected consumers. Our research helps clients make the right architectural choices and identifies the key drivers, inhibitors and economic justifications inherent in this shift to new service delivery architectures.
-
As smartphone usage and video traffic increases on mobile networks, content delivery networks (CDNs) are beginning to make their mark on the mobile landscape. Carriers and content providers should consider CDNs as they seek to strengthen their presence in the mobile market.
Aug. 18, 2010 | Report | by Terry Cudmore
-
Mobile video is already stoking unprecedented data traffic levels, and the demand will only increase as newer, video-savvy devices and 4G networks proliferate. Communications service providers (CSPs) can prepare for the onslaught by revamping their back-office systems and adopting more creative pricing and business models.
Jul. 30, 2010 | Report | by Terry Cudmore | CO-AUTHORS: Chris Nicoll
-
AT&T and Verizon have started to roll out significant differentiators for their video services, leveraging what each sees as its greatest asset and seeding the interactive TV market. In order to continue the momentum, both companies must aggressively court outside developers and trumpet their differentiations to consumers.
Jul. 29, 2010 | Report | by Vince Vittore
-
Mobile traffic is rising, and consumers and enterprises are constantly demanding more bandwidth, content and speed. Yankee Group analysts Declan Lonergan, Camille Mendler and Benoit Felten address how the telecom industry can grow as demand becomes ever-increasing.
July 27, 2010 | Blog | by Declan Lonergan
-
Latin America should be a ripe market for IPTV, but regulatory uncertainty has prevented the technology from taking off. Until these issues are resolved, IPTV in Latin America will be highly segmented with opportunities largely in existing cable operators migrating to IP, smaller countries and the hospitality market.
Jul. 27, 2010 | Report | by Vince Vittore | CO-AUTHORS: Wally Swain
-
One day all telecom operators will have a native IP backbone. The big question is when and how to achieve this migration technically and commercially. Accelerating to a profitable IP future is the objective of the i3 Forum , whose inner workings I witnessed up close and personal in June....
June 29, 2010 | Blog | by Camille Mendler
-
In this webinar, analysts Chris Nicoll and Terry Cudmore discuss the future of mobile video.
June 29, 2010 | Blog | by Chris Nicoll
Preparing for 4G Video Services
In this webinar, Yankee Group Distinguished Research Fellow Chris Nicoll and Analyst Terry Cudmore investigate the pressing issues of mobile video delivery and provide recommendations to ensure that video becomes a killer application, not a network-killing service.
Jun. 29, 2010 | Live Webinar | by Chris Nicoll | CO-AUTHORS: Terry Cudmore
-
I've been travelling like a maniac lately. Maybe you know the ads that have been catching my eye as I trudge in and out of jetways around the world. A global bank s poster campaign pairs arresting images of objects with simple words to label them....
June 12, 2010 | Blog | by Emily Green
-
The global mobile industry agrees that IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) is the target architecture for delivering revenue-critical voice and messaging services over LTE. The race is now on for the IMS vendor and operator ecosystem to work together and ensure that VoLTE can deliver on its promises.
Jun. 7, 2010 | Report | by Brian Partridge
-
While the Huawei and ZTE have proven they can fight it out over IPTV contracts in China, the two vendors are now making plans to take on the rest of the world. Both should leverage internal business units and outside help to more fully develop their offerings.
May. 28, 2010 | Report | by Vince Vittore
-
CenturyLink's acquisition of Qwest reshapes the Tier 2 ILEC market and gives the former rural carrier several new sources of revenue, most notably from enterprises and the mobile backhaul market.
May. 4, 2010 | Report | by Vince Vittore
-
March's IPTV World Forum underscored the fact that IPTV is barely out of its infancy. Before it can fully mature, service providers must deal with over-the-top challenges and find a business model that makes sense.
Apr. 29, 2010 | Report | by Vince Vittore
-
Cloud vendors offer enterprises poor service guarantees and limited financial redress if their service fails. Get-out clauses are rife, and worryingly, robust privacy policies are rare, potentially exposing enterprises to litigation. Enterprises must take a close look at the small print before they proceed, and develop proactive strategies to get the best out of cloud services.
Apr. 15, 2010 | Report | by Camille Mendler
-
As a follower and commenter on what was once called telco TV, I thought I knew how to define IPTV. After three days at IPTV World Forum in London I ve come to the conclusion that I was wrong....
March 25, 2010 | Blog | by Vince Vittore
-
Canadian mobile phone customers are slightly more satisfied with their service providers this year, but that satisfaction hasn't yet morphed into customer loyalty for most operators. Key areas that show serious flaws are customer service and support, as well as less than timely problem resolution.
Mar. 8, 2010 | Report | by Sheryl Kingstone
-
In response to increased competition from external players, cable operators will start earnestly moving to an all-IP environment this year. Initially, they will use a mixture of architectures, but the shift toward running all video through IP will accelerate rapidly as the economics of cable-based IP improve.
Mar. 1, 2010 | Report | by Vince Vittore
-
App stores on pay TV platforms will provide differentiation in highly competitive markets and allow service providers to provide a high level of personalization. To take advantage of this trend, operators must map out a cohesive strategy that takes into account competitive dynamics, cultural issues and consumer desire for new levels of interactivity.
Feb. 23, 2010 | Report | by Vince Vittore
-
Rich Communication Suite (RCS) has been touted heavily by IMS vendors, device manufacturers and service providers in hopes of kick-starting IMS adoption among mobile operators. To be successful, RCS must evolve to become interoperable and easy to use, and offer innovative services users are willing to pay for.
Feb. 11, 2010 | Report | by Brian Partridge
-
Nearly half of all enterprises identify application performance and availability as one of the top three barriers preventing them from adopting cloud computing and desktop virtualization. This application delivery controller (ADC) overview shows that advances in acceleration technology will mitigate those issues and kick-start the enterprise move to the cloud.
Jan. 25, 2010 | Report | by Agatha Poon
-
End-users drive mobility in most enterprises today, resulting in a mishmash of technologies that are difficult to manage and scale. IT needs to take back control and put a mobility architecture in place that addresses three key elements: device, connectivity and application management.
Jan. 14, 2010 | Report | by Joshua Holbrook
-
The app store movement will begin migrating to pay TV in 2010, despite a weak business model. Operators and vendors should prepare for the transition now by experimenting with business models and development processes that fit the video environment's unique attributes.
Jan. 6, 2010 | Report | by Vince Vittore
-
Farewell to the Noughties, a decade sandwiched between two crises: The dotcom bust and the current but sputtering - downturn. In that time, Europe accomplished much: The Euro was adopted, DSL went mainstream and telcos went NGN....
December 22, 2009 | Blog | by Camille Mendler
-
In this webinar, a panel of Yankee Group analysts discuss their predictions for the 2010 communications industry.
December 15, 2009 | Blog | by Christopher Collins
Yankee Group 2010 Predictions
In this Yankee Group webinar, analysts Christopher Collins, Joshua Holbrook, Camille Mendler and Jon Paisner unveil our top predictions for the 2010 communications industry.
Dec. 15, 2009 | Live Webinar | by Christopher Collins
-
The economic crisis permanently changed how consumers, enterprises and network builders approach everything. But those changes will create new opportunities in the Anywhere ecosystem, especially in the areas of cord-cutting, devices, cloud computing and network innovation. Here's our take on 2010's winners and losers.
Dec. 15, 2009 | Report | by Christopher Collins | CO-AUTHORS: Carl Howe, Dianne Northfield, Jennifer Pigg, Joshua Holbrook, Camille Mendler, Jon Paisner, Andy Castonguay, Declan Lonergan, Eugene Signorini, Agatha Poon
-
Calling all marketers: How do you sell a network? While operators fear their offering being reduced to nothing more than dumb transfer of bits, the actual internal complexity of their infrastructure gets more impressive every day. But I'm a geek....
December 11, 2009 | Blog | by Emily Green
-
Today, many operators are still struggling to create a slam dunk business case for IMS. The key is to go beyond IMS as a simple IP migration story and look to integrate IMS-enabled features with social networking and other tools to create real differentiators in the marketplace.
Dec. 1, 2009 | Report | by Brian Partridge
-
Given the opportunity to join IBM's Global Executive Forum again this year, I jumped. Past experience has proven that it's an intimate, powerful gathering where C-level execs from global communications and media firms convene to mull key questions in leadership....
November 19, 2009 | Blog | by Emily Green
-
Mobile IP traffic will be dominated by video in 2013. Network operators need to begin planning today for the business models and network architectures that will make video services profitable without sacrificing user experience.
Nov. 9, 2009 | Report | by Brian Partridge
-
Mobile phone customers are slightly more satisfied with their service providers this year, but that satisfaction hasn't yet morphed into customer loyalty for most operators. Only Verizon Wireless passes the customer loyalty test, with four out of five customers recommending it to their friends and family.
Oct. 27, 2009 | Report | by Sheryl Kingstone
-
Network operators with plans to roll out LTE have some big decisions to make regarding support for their core revenue services, voice and SMS. Inaction will lead to industry fragmentation and hinder LTE adoption.
Jul. 22, 2009 | Report | by Brian Partridge
-
Electronic numbering, or telephone number mapping, underpins the new GSM Association/NeuStar managed service that promises to reduce the costs associated with managing numbering directories at the signaling layer. If GSMA/NeuStar is successful in recruiting service providers to adopt PathFinder, it could be a major step on the path to a global registry, which is ultimately required to deliver services Anywhere.
Jul. 15, 2009 | Report | by Brian Partridge
-
The recent Telecoms Barometer Survey by Yankee Group and the Telecommunications Executive Network (TEN) showed that European telecom executives are beginning to embrace new business models that downplay the ownership of network assets and prioritize service management. A change in investment priorities favoring service aggregation and integration will need to follow.
Jun. 29, 2009 | Report | by Camille Mendler
-
Replacing the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is no longer a top priority for incumbent fixed-line carriers focused on sweating declining assets and investing in revenue-enhancing opportunities and next-generation access networks. The implications of this strategy are less innovation around voice services and extension of the useful life of PSTN equipment, which will negatively affect softswitch and IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) providers in the short to medium term.
Jun. 25, 2009 | Report | by Brian Partridge
-
The opportunity for vendors of service delivery platform (SDP) products, solutions and services to grow revenue remains strong despite a difficult capital spending environment. Yankee Group estimates worldwide SDP spending will exceed U.S.$6.4 billion by the year 2012.
May. 19, 2009 | Report | by Brian Partridge
-
Remember that scene in the The Graduate , where the older guy whispers in Dustin Hoffman s ear? He s reveali ng where future riches lie. What he says is: "Plastics." Not a bad steer in 1967. Today, the word in your ear is - wait for it - interconnect ....
April 3, 2009 | Blog | by Camille Mendler
-
How many customers does it take to matter in the world of wireless infrastructure? Well, if you are trying to partner with customers on the product roadmap for an important technology, maybe one is enough. And if it's one of the biggest operators in the world, even better....
March 31, 2009 | Blog | by Ashvin Vellody
-
Telecommunications-related capital spending will be down approximately 4 percent for all of the 2009 as telecom operators rein in spending to account for the current economic environment and credit crisis. Yankee Group does not anticipate core service revenue to drop precipitously, but carriers will employ much greater caution with the ratio of capex to revenue.
Mar. 30, 2009 | Report | by Brian Partridge | CO-AUTHORS: David Vorhaus
-
The downturn is forcing tough decisions about what remains core....
March 24, 2009 | Blog | by Camille Mendler
-
I had an opportunity to meet with several HP executives at the annual industry analyst summit they held in Boston this week....
March 11, 2009 | Blog | by Brian Partridge
-
Ben Verwaayen s maiden speech to the 19th Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum was not what I expected. The new CEO did not focus on the company financials, he did not bluster. Instead, he perched on the podium and said thank you to ALU s customers and partners....
March 6, 2009 | Blog | by Camille Mendler
-
There was a wolfish grin on the man s face, and I swear he licked his chops. Oh yes, there s going be a lot of money, really quite a lot, in presence brokering, he said. It was a conversation that I had at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I've been mulling it over ever since....
March 2, 2009 | Blog | by Camille Mendler
-
The economic downturn is creating a perfect storm for IBM to redouble its efforts at dominating emerging markets with their full telco-specific product portfolio.
Feb. 13, 2009 | Note | by Brian Partridge | CO-AUTHORS: Ashvin Vellody
-
Media companies that recognize the imperative to transcend individual CMS platforms for video and build a larger enterprise architecture are on the path to Anywhere. Making smart investments today will yield tangible operational benefits now and provide the flexibility to evolve in the future.
Feb. 11, 2009 | Report | by Brian Partridge | CO-AUTHORS: Carl Howe
-
As networks evolve into true NGN/IMS, a service broker network element can provide backward compatibility and application reach while reducing operators' capex and opex for supporting more applications.
Dec. 12, 2008 | Note | by Brian Partridge
-
Last Thursday, Alcatel Lucent was holding its Innovation Days 2008 in Paris....
December 8, 2008 | Blog | by Benoît Felten
-
Although doubts about the scale of WiMAX have clouded its future, Latin American operators continue to invest in WiMAX and the technology still has the opportunity to have a significant market impact.
Nov. 21, 2008 | Note | by Colin Bennett | CO-AUTHORS: Wally Swain
-
Spent a day with nice folks at Tekelec the other day....
November 20, 2008 | Blog | by Brian Partridge
-
Lately, Carl Howe has been getting cranky every time anyone (namely me) brings up the expression "Over The Top." I wouldn't say that it's pure crankiness but more like qualified clarity....
November 5, 2008 | Blog | by Daniel Taylor