Video Delivery: Some Ways Better Than Others

At some point, as much more video starts to be delivered using IP networks, network marketers and engineers are going to have to come up with ways to entice people to use alternate means of delivery, when it is feasible to do so. At some point, it simply will not make sense to chew up valuable voice and interactive data bandwidth for relatively low value YouTube clips, as entertaining as they might be.

Consider for example what Qwest is doing: it has esentially decided to keep all traditional linear video programming, including high definition TV and on-demand programming intended for TV screen viewing, off its IP pipe. It is doing so by delivering linear TV in the most bandwidth efficient means possible, namely by satellite, streaming point-to-multipoint.

As would be the case for IP multicasting, the idea is simple" launch one single copy of each program to a virtually unlimited number of users who can view the stream at the same time or on a store-and-watch-later basis (TiVo or another digital video recorder).

That will reserve the IP connection for unicast video and other interactive applications. The same sort of "offloading" principle is used by Netflix with its "DVD in the mail" approach. The point is that we do not have to force everybody to use IP bandwidth for watching unicast video when multicasting, sideloading, satellite, physical media or some other approach, including time-shifted delivery, might work just as well.

The baleful alternatives will find service providers unable to meet customer demand for bandwidth because there no longer is any money to be made; a dramatic increase in monthly prices; or both. Consumers are smart. Given a reasonable set of different ways to get video, at discrete prices for different delivery times and media, they'll make choices that relieve pressure on access bandwidth bottlenecks.

Dell, Fonality Target SME Market

Some things never seem to change. For several decades, competitive providers of communications services, not to mention value added resellers, interconnect companies that install business phone systems, Internet access providers and broadband services providers have found that the small and medium-sized business segment has been the sweet spot for competing successfully with large incumbents. Cable companies now are preparing their own assault on the lower end of the market as well.

The news that Dell now will be selling the Fonality VoIP Phone System through its global SME sales organization, as well as its channel is simply more confirmation of the trend.

At the same time, there is abundant evidence that not all providers are equally advantaged in the SME space as the technological complexity of services intensifies. Some providers used to selling connectivity services with a clear network demarcation are going to find the going much tougher as the demarc moves to the desktop and the handset.

VoIP, in particular, requires more active assessment, management, monitoring and installation activity and support. And that's just at the network layer. As voice and communications become more embedded in actual end user applications, the level of complexity will take another leap. So, going forward, every provider inevitably will wind up more involved than perhaps desired in all sorts of implementation, optimization and management activities.

More skill and more cost are the inevitable result.

Four More VoIP Patent Infringement Suits

As many of us had feared, if Vonage is infringing patents, why aren't other independent VoIP providers doing so as well? Well, we now have a possible answer. Sprint Nextel Corp. is suing four competitive VoIP providers for the same patent infringements Vonage has been found to infringe. Sprint has sued NuVox Communications, Broadvox Holdings Paetec and Big River Telephone Co.

On the heels of Verizon's new lawsuit against Cox Enterprises for VoIP patent infringement, we might be seeing the materialization of the threat. Executives in the competitive VoIP community have privately worried about just such a turn of events for some time. It now looks as though those fears are justified.

Justin McLain, Endeavor Telecom CEO, partly in jest (but only partly) recently said at a panel at the Internet Telephony Expo that any independent, "over the top" VoIP provider had better have all the funding they need for 24 months, because if not, the companies will fold within that period. "You might want to look for another job," McLain said, again partly in jest, but only partly.

Competing against well-established providers who own their own access facilities and have huge customer bases, plus the ability to bundle entertainment video and broadband access or mobile services simply is going to be too tough, at least in the consumer market segment.

"No bring your own broadband provider really is successful," McLain said. In fact, a good part of any independent provider's success in the consumer market is driven to a large extent by customers who recently have immigrated to the United States and have high needs for international calling back to their home countries, McLain says.

Some other part of the market is composed of price-conscious callers, but the problem is that the average revenue per user a provider can generate from that segment is not enough to support a business, says Sanford McMurtree, RNK Communications VP.

Among the other possible changes in strategy are a shift to multi-level marketing on the Amway pattern, says Gary Coben, deltathree director. "For all the money spent marketing VoIP services, there aren't that many customers," Coben says. "That means people aren't comfortable buying."

It looks to be a tough year for independent VoIP providers who cannot reposition from a consumer focus to serve smaller business customers.

DoCoMo Gets Moving on Android

Not to count chickens before they hatch, but Japan's DoCoMo says it has begun a process leading to Android-powered devices being offered to customers, according to reporting by InfoWorld writer Martyn Williams. "We are starting discussions to offer handsets that will have the Android operating system," says Takeshi Natsuno, NTT DoCoMo managing director.

The talks include getting support for I-mode, DoCoMo's hit mobile Internet service, on the Android platform. Nearly 48 million of DoCoMo's 53 million customers subscribe to I-mode, so having it on Android will be key to the Google platform's success in Japan.

The availability of Android-powered phones on the DoCoMo network of course was expected. The point is that tangible steps now are being taken to make that a reality. Since nobody is going to be able to assess how important Android might be until people actually get to use devices running the new operating system, it's an important step.

UM to UC to CEBP

It isn't clear how much actually has changed except the semantics, but application providers finally are getting better at explaining the benefits to be gained from IP-based communications capabilities. Several years ago the buzzword was "unified messaging." Last year it was "unified communications." This year it is "communications-enabled business processes.

However meaningful the change, it seems fairly clear that the terrain now is shifting in a subtle way. In the old days "telephone service" "dial tone" or even "messaging" was a discrete point solution, not requiring understanding of what the end user actually was doing at the use site, Martin Suter, Objectword president says.

By definition, a supplier has to understand much more about what a user or organization actually has to accomplish at a site, and what software is used to support those tasks, to "communications enable" those processes.

Almost by definition, value added resellers and other technology support organizations have had to know more about what users wanted to accomplish, compared to retailers of "voice" services. And that probably will be telling over the next several years as the CEBP or "next acronym" business moves forward.

In the meantime, expect to hear lots more about how communications can affect everyday business or organizational processes, ranging from safety to inventory management and customer management. It isn't "old wine in new bottles," though some will rush to try that. It's a new role for communications: enabler of better software.

More Changes at Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel faces big problems. New CEO Dan Hesse is wasting no time "doing something." First Sprint announced significant headcount reductions (4,000) and closing of a number of retail operations (125 stores and 4,000 retail partners) Now Sprint says CFO Paul Saleh, Chief Marketing Officer Tim Kelly and Mark Angelino, president of sales and distribution, are leaving the company.

The executive changes involve officials most responsible for building the telecom company's brand and customer base, or more accurately, a declining customer base. The earlier set of moves will help Sprint reduce its overall and cost structure. The resignations allow Hesse to bring in a new team to change course. The issue now is what course Sprint Nextel will take.

IMS Realism

IP Multimedia Subsystem seems to be moving from concept to deployment, if recent observations by Manuel Vexler, IMS Forum VP, are any indication.

For starters, billing and operations support software firms are starting to be more active. That suggests their carrier customers finally are thinking about generating revenue from deploying IMS features (IMS is a platform allowing services providers to rapidly and cheaply create new services, test and then deploy them).

Carrier chief financial officers also seem to be asking tougher questions, which suggests carrier technologists are asking for authority to buy platforms. Many of the questions seem to be of the "you bought ATM 10 years ago, soft switches five years ago and now you want to buy IMS?"

IMS backers also now seem to be more aware that it really is infrastructure, and that the search for services will have to follow. "You don't have Google until you have the Internet," Vexler notes. Up to this point some have worried about identifying some "killer app" that would justify IMS deployment. Now there may be more awareness that until the platform is in place we won't really know what apps will resonate.

It probably still is a fair bet that wireless apps will be early candidates, as IMS originally was created by mobile carriers.