Independent Telcos Buy SDN-based Cloud Services Provider

A consortium of 32 independent telcos that own  BLM Acquisition Corp. has acquired cloud service provider Codero, a cloud hosting company.

The deal gives the regionals a cloud hosting capability, while Cordero gets “out of market” distribution channels and access to investment it needs to expand.

One practical angle: the owners are scattered over a wide area, but Cordero’s backbone uses software defined network architecture, with the practical implication that end user sites require very little hardware investment, allowing service providers  to log in to a portal and configure bare-metal servers, cloud resources and virtual networks on demand.

Codero has 4,000 customers of all sizes, from small to enterprise.

Codero customers will have enhanced connectivity options and Codero will gain access to what it calls one of the largest combined fiber networks in the United States.

The acquisition makes Codero a major cloud play in the cities that aren’t core markets and in smaller and rural towns. That isn’t necessarily unusual. But what is noteworthy is that use of SDN makes service delivery much more manageable, and cheaper.

French Mobile and Fixed Price Declines Moderate in 2014

French retail mobile and fixed telecom prices are decreased at a slower rate in 2014, compared to 2013, according to French regulator ARCEP.

Revenue earned by operators totalled €36.8 billion, a 3.4 percent decrease over the previous year, following a drop of 7.3 percent in 2013.

ARCEP says the moderating declines were driven by a more-moderate decline in fixed telephone service revenues as well as  and also by a similar trend in mobile pricing in the residential market segment in 2014.

The price of fixed services decreased by an average of one percent in 2014. In 2013, prices actually grew by 2.6 percent. Fixed network prices have been roughly flat since 2012, ARCEP notes.  

Retail high speed access prices decreased by 2.7 percent in 2014, following a  2.7 percent increase in 2013.

Overall, prices for faster access services between 2012 and 2014 were flat, down about 0.2 percent.

Though arguing that mobile service prices remained relatively stable over the course of 2014, ARCEP also says that post-paid contract prices (flat rate plans, which account for 85 percent of the market in terms of volume) decreased by 13.5 percent, compared to a drop of 25.6 percent in 2013.

Prepaid card prices increase since 2011 and were up 7.5 percent in 2014, on average.

Memory and Voice Costs Declined 3 Orders of Magnitude Since 1993?

The retail cost of memory, like the retail cost of texting, calling or messaging, is a fundamental reality for nearly any business or industry where product creation distribution and consumption has significant "information" content. 

The price of a product (a gigabyte of storage) falls from $9,327 to $2.48, a decline of three orders of magnitude over two decades. 

Nothing that dramatic has occurred for most carrier-provided voice calls. From 1965 to 1985, for example, U.S. originated international call prices dropped by about half, or about one order of magnitude ($10 for a three-minute call to $5 for a three-minute call). 

Between 1993 and 2013, the cost of a mobile-initiated voice call in the U.S. market dropped about one order of magnitude. 

Of course, it is hard to compare carrier voice with the cost of Skype-to-Skype calls or instant messaging services, which might have "zero incremental cost." 

But it would not be hard to attribute a three ordes of magnitude effective price decline, if one used an attributed cost model, where some percentage of the cost of Internet access was used as the indicator of incremental cost of usage. 

 

Asia Pacific Mobile Devices Will Consume 2.2 GB per Device by 2019

In the Asia Pacific region, mobile data traffic will grow 10-fold from 2014 to 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 58 percent, according to the Cisco Mobile Visual Networking Index.

In 2014 there were 2.2 billion mobile users in 2014, representing 56 percent of Asia Pacific's population.

By 2019 there will be 2.8 billion mobile users representing 69 percent of Asia Pacific's population.

In Asia Pacific, mobile data traffic will reach an annual run rate of 114 Exabytes by 2019, up from 11.7 Exabytes in 2014, growing three times faster than Asia Pacific fixed IP traffic from 2014 to 2019.

In Asia Pacific, mobile data traffic will account for 17 percent of Asia Pacific fixed and mobile data traffic by 2019, up from four percent in 2014, while 53 percent of mobile connections will be “smart” connections by 2019, up from 24 percent in 2014.

In Asia Pacific, mobile traffic per mobile-connected end-user device will reach 2.2 GB per month by 2019, up from 273 megabytes per month in 2014, a compound annual growth rate of 51 percent.

Trends are similar in many countries. In Indonesia, there were 155.1 million mobile users in 2014, representing 61 percent of Indonesia's population. By 2019 73 percent of Indonesia’s population, some 195.3 million people will be using mobile devices, according to the Cisco Mobile Visual Networking Index.

Perhaps significantly, mobile data traffic will grow an order of magnitude (10 times)  from 2014 to 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 59 percent.

Mobile data traffic will account for 41 percent of Indonesian data traffic by 2019, up from 17 percent  in 2014.

By 2019, 46 percent of mobile connections will be “smart,” up from 14 percent in 2014.

In Indonesia, mobile traffic per mobile-connected end-user device will reach 1.7 GB per month by 2019, up from 185 megabytes per month in 2014, a CAGR of 55 percent.

Mobile Data Traffic Will Grow 10X from 2014 to 2019

In Indonesia, there were 155.1 million mobile users in 2014, representing 61 percent of Indonesia's population. By 2019 73 percent of Indonesia’s population, some 195.3 million people will be using mobile devices, according to the Cisco Mobile Visual Networking Index.

Perhaps significantly, mobile data traffic will grow an order of magnitude (10 times)  from 2014 to 2019, a compound annual growth rate of 59 percent.

Mobile data traffic will account for 41 percent of Indonesian data traffic by 2019, up from 17 percent  in 2014.

By 2019, 46 percent of mobile connections will be “smart,” up from 14 percent in 2014.

In Indonesia, mobile traffic per mobile-connected end-user device will reach 1.7 GB per month by 2019, up from 185 megabytes per month in 2014, a CAGR of 55 percent.

Will Google Project Loon Launch Internet Access Service in 2016?

Mesh networks might be a significant new factor in the Internet access business across much of the Global South.

By linking it “Project Loon” balloons together in a mesh network, where ground signals can be relayed directly between balloons, Google can now provide coverage for an entire region such as  West Africa using only about eight ground stations, according to Bloomberg.

In the past, Project Loon balloons used for delivering Internet access had to have a direct link to a mobile cell tower on the ground. Given Project Loon’s objective of providing service to “hard to reach areas” where such towers are in short supply, that was a constraint.

Now traffic can be relayed from balloon to balloon, allowing any single balloon to remain connected with any single cell tower 400 kilometers to 800 kilometers distant.

Other new contestants in the Internet access and transport business, including LeoSat, plan to use a mesh network as well, and for similar reasons, allowing a single uplink and downlink for traffic, no matter how far it has to travel across the face of the earth.

The new mesh configuration solves an existing problem, namely the fact that single balloons, communicating with single base stations, can provide only intermittent service.

Project Loon is conducting trials in Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Brazil, and other countries,

But it is conceivable Project Loon will be able to provide commercial service by the end of 2016, in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

The other noteworthy angle is that use of cell towers makes some mobile service providers potential partners for Project Loon, in either a wholesale or retail capacity.

Zero Rating: Philippines and Pakistan Say "Yes," India Might Say "No"

The controversy over zero rating in India might also be affecting Google, in the sense of raising potential hostility neither Facebook nor Google wants to incur.

Google has a similar zero rating initiative called Google Free Zone that has been offered in a handful of countries like Kenya, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines.

Especially after positive results in the Philippines, it would have been logical for Google to introduce the concept in India.

But some reports suggest the controversy, which also has seen app providers in India pull back from participation in Internet.org, a zero rating program for India, is causing Google to wait, as well.

Separately, Telenor Pakistan has launched Internet.org in Pakistan, making available to Telenor Pakistan's customers free access to 17 basic online services including Accuweather, BBC, BabyCenter &MAMA, Malaria No More, UNICEF Facts for Life, Bing.com, ESPN Cricinfo, Mustakbil, ilmkidunya, Telenor News, Urdupoint Cooking, OLX, Facebook, Messenger, Wikipedia and Telenor WAP MobilePortal, using either the 2G or 3G platforms.

Consumers can use Internet.org aps directly from Internet.org or by downloading the Android app.

Internet.org is a Facebook-led initiative bringing together technology leaders, nonprofits and local communities with the goal of making internet access available and affordable to the two-thirds of the world that is not yet connected and bringing the same opportunities to everyone that the connected world has today.

Internet.org was first launched in July 2014 in Zambia and in less than a year it made valuable online services accessible without data charges for millions of people in Tanzania, Kenya, Colombia, Ghana, India, Philippines, Guatemala, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malawi and now in Pakistan.

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