86% of Enterprises Plan to Have SDN Deployed by 2016

A survey of 153 medium and large businesses found nearly 80 percent planning to implement SDN technology in the data center  in 2017, Infonetics Research, a unit of IHS Inc., said. More than six in 10 of the respondents were either conducting or planning to launch SDN lab trials this year.

SDN investments have been growing about 192 percent, according to Infonetics Research. Some 86 percent of polled enterprises planned to have SDN live by 2016, a 2014 survey suggested, while SDN investments are predicted to grow 15 times by 2019.  

SDN benefits are expected to include lower capital expense, lower operating costs and higher productivity. Automated disaster recovery and support of hybrid cloud operations also are drivers.

The ability to  monitor application traffic patterns in the network is expected to lower capital expense.

SDN used to automate provisioning of application services and networking hardware such as servers and switches, lowering operating costs.

Companies planned to apply SDN in automated application deployment, optimized network traffic flow and moving virtual machines is expected to boost productivity.

Despite Cloud Growth, Enterprises Also Invest in Own Data Centers

Even as cloud computing continues its inexorable march, most mid-size and large businesses also are planning to increase spending on their mission-critical data center facilities in the near future, says 451 Research.

Nearly 90 percent of data center operators surveyed in North America and Europe had plans to increase data center facility spending, according to 451 Research, which said

Nearly 25 percent of survey respondents said they planned to increase spending on data cetners within the next 90 days.

Enterprises are consolidating smaller data centers into larger centralized centers.

Insane GoPro Video

In and out of that rock eye at 100 miles per hour. 

Messaging Revenue to Drop 42% by 2021

Mobile service provider messaging revenue will decline 42 percent to less than $53 billion by 2021 as over the top alternatives displace the need for texting.  

The global base of active over-the-top (OTT) messaging users increased by over 40 percent during 2014 with the average user sending over 900 messages per user per month, over eight times more than the average user of text messaging services, Strategy Analytics said.

At the same time, predictions for OTT messaging revenue, at least in terms of subscription revenue, show that OTT messaging cannibalizes some amount of activity, but in other ways simply destroys the revenue source.

“By 2021 we forecast global revenue for OTT messaging services to approach $13 billion  in revenue,”  said David Kerr, Strategy Analytics SVP.

Can Internet of Things Make Telcos "Platforms?"

However one assesses the possibility of succeeding, some argue major telcos have to become platforms.

That would be a profound challenge under any circumstances.

A computing platform is, in the most general sense, the environment within which computer software is designed to run within, obeying its constraints, and making use of its facilities.

The notion of “platform” therefore is a shortened form of the complete term “computing platform.”

Conceptually, there are different levels of abstraction. Hardware architecture, operating system or runtime libraries provide examples.

You see the problem. Historically, computing has been one business and set of functions, communications a separate business. Becoming a platform” necessarily means moving “up the protocol stack” and into a different industry, fundamentally.

Platforms can include pure hardware such as embedded systems, browsers, applications, software frameworks, cloud computing, virtual machines or virtualized version of a complete system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software and storage.

Internet of Things could well be a place where a former “telco” could create a new role, as a platform for development. Whether “telcos” can become generalized “platforms” might be another matter.

Some might argue that, to the extent it is possible, mobile service providers already are moving in that direction. Connected car and connected healthcare provide examples.

“As the US market focuses on the next stage of its evolution--from voice to text to data and now to constant connectivity and what you do with it—competition for market share and retention of subscribers takes center stage,” said Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Strategy Analytics director of  wireless operator strategies.

The U.S. mobile business has entered into a new phase, evolving from voice to text to data and now to constant connectivity and what you do with it, according to Strategy Analytics Wireless.

With fewer new subscribers to sign up for mobile service for the first time, carriers have focused on transitioning consumers to smartphones, 4G LTE and monetizing their data use. Now carriers are focusing on adding value and content.

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The reasons are simple enough: by 2020, adoption will have reached 128 percent. Growth will be hard to manage based solely on adding new “human” accounts and customers.

That is why mobile service revenue will grow just 0.2 percent to reach US$197 billion in 2020, up slightly from $195 billion in 2015.

Mobile data revenue might grow only  3.3 percent.

Dept. of Justice Will Not Block AT&T Purchase of DirecTV or Impose Conditiions

AT&T’s $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV has not raised antitrust issues, and is expected to receive Department of Justice clearance, Bloomberg reports.

The merger still needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which could demand concessions of its own, however.

AT&T already has publicly committed to expanded investments in rural high speed access as part of the deal. Beyond that, it would not be unusual for AT&T and FCC staffers to have informally discussed some voluntary concessions with FCC staff, were they deemed necessary by either party.

In substantial part, that clearance is structural. DirecTV is a satellite-TV provider and AT&T is telecommunications and mobile company. DirecTV is a leading video entertainment supplier.

But DirecTV has about 21 percent market share. AT&T has about six percent share. So the combined company should have about 27 percent share. That degree of concentration is not typically an issue. Once a firm reaches 30 percent, thinking tends to change.

In the past, no firm has been allowed to garner more than 30 percent share in the linear video, telephone or mobile business. 

DirecTV has virtually no high speed access customers, though it co-markets satellite high speed access provided by third parties.

Nor does DirecTV compete in the voice or mobile services businesses.

77% of Mobile Data Growth Driven by Emerging Markets

As has been the case for use of mobile services generally, emerging markets now are driving incremental mobile data revenue, with emerging markets contributing 77 percent of mobile data traffic growth in the first quarter of 2015, according to Strategy Analytics.

Affordable data plans such as micro-bundles, device and data plan combinations, and affordable smartphones have been key enablers.

The leading mobile operators in terms of traffic growth in the first quarter of 2015 were AIS Thailand (192 percent), Geocell Georgia (176 percent), Play Poland (163 percent), Indosat Indonesia (159 percent) and China Mobile (158 percent).

In India, 2G traffic growth is still strong. In the first quarter, 2G accounted for 44 percent of total data traffic at Idea Cellular and grew 68 percent annually.

On Idea’s 3G network, by way of comparison, traffic grew 135 percent in the first quarter.

Developed markets tend to see 4G supporting most of the traffic. Verizon Wireless saw 86 percent of its data traffic on the LTE network.

In  South Korea, 96 percent of data traffic is carried on 4G networks.

In Singapore mobile data consumption grew 25 percent in the first quarter. In Hong Kong mobile data consumption grew 34 percent. U.S. mobile data consumption grew 26 percent growth in  2014.

Of course, traffic is not revenue, and revenue growth lags behind consumption. Data revenue growth fell below 20 percent globally for the first time, said Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Strategy Analytics director, wireless operator strategies.

source: Strategy Analytics