Google Researchers Apply Artificial Intelligence to Image Compression

Google has applied artificial intelligence to the problem of optimizing energy usage in its data centers, and researchers now say they have developed a way to use AI for compressing  images more efficiently than using JPEG.

Such practical applications for artificial intelligence will be needed to push machine learning into the mainstream of business processes.

Global Enterprise Spending Flat Through 2020, Garner Predicts

source: Gartner

With several caveats--that global trends are not necessarily reflected in every local market; that some spending is disguised (open source investments, for example); that market share shifts are happening; and that some sectors are growing while others decline--Gartner says global telecom spending by enterprises is flat in 2016, and likely will stay that way through 2020.

The other caveat is that major global upticks and downturns tend to affect enterprise capital investment as well. So any synchronized global downturn will have more negative impact than current projections incorporate.

Also, currency fluctuations also affect the reported level of spending. On a constant currency basis, information technology spending would be up about 1.5 percent.

At the same time, productivity improvements mean enterprises can spend less, while gaining greater advantage from any fixed amount of spending.

 

Separately, Ovum says second quarter 2016 earnings by public service providers show that service provider revenues overall grew about one percent in the second quarter, year over year.

That, Ovum says, is the first his year-over-year growth since the third quarter of 2014. Those figures include both consumer and business segments, and likely reflect revenue gains in consumer segments of the business.

Much small business spending on cloud services or mobility often gets disguised as consumer spending on such services, as well.

U.K. Business Telecom Spending Falls, but SME Grows

If 2015 enterprise and business spending on telecommunications services has relevance for the U.S. market, business segment revenue likely is down (fixed and mobile), but small business buying of voice and Internet access lines is up.

Leased line and web hosting revenue likely climbed fractionally.

Web hosting grew 1.3 percent, while Ethernet or leased-line services grew 1.5 percent.

IP-VPN services revenue fell slightly (0.8 percent), while frame or cell (ATM) services revenue plummeted 53.5 percent.

Total U.K. business revenue fell by £0.2 billion (2.4 percent) to £9.1 billion in 2015. This was driven by a £0.2 billion (7.6 percent) decrease in fixed voice revenues and a £0.2 billion (5.4 percent) fall in mobile revenues, partly offset by a £0.1 billion (14 percent) increase in non-corporate internet services.

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The decline in business monthly retail revenue per fixed line was due to call volume and price declines.

The proportion of business calls that originated on mobile networks was 56 percent in 2015, representing a 1.2 percentage point increase on 2014.

source: Ofcom

But total business call volumes fell by 2.2 billion minutes (4.9 percent) in 2015, driven by a fall of 1.5 billion (7.5 percent) fixed business minutes and 0.7 billion (2.9 percent) mobile business minutes, excluding use of IP telephony services.

At the end of 2015 there were 7.6 million business fixed lines and ISDN channels, a year over year fall of 0.3 million (4.3 percent), and 2.0 million (21 percent) fewer than there had been at the end of 2010.

The number of small and mid-sized business broadband lines increased by 0.1 million (5.2 percent) in 2015. Between 2010 and 2015 SME broadband lines increased by 0.6 million (a five-year CAGR of 5.4 percent).

At the end of 2015 there were 9.5 million business mobile connections (excluding the 6.7 million M2M connections), equivalent to 13 percent of all such connections.

Some 77 percent of businesses’ dedicated data subscriptions were M2M connections.

U.K. Households Increase Data Consumption 41%, Year over Year

In 2015, the average U.K. household buying fixed network Internet access consumed 82 GB of data each month, a 41 percent increase compared to the 58 GB per month recorded in June 2014.

Higher consumption of over the top entertainment video was a driver of the change, as well as faster speeds. As always, faster speeds mean more data can be consumed in any given unit of time. Also, faster speeds mean each household user can consume more data in any given unit of time.

source: Ofcom

That noted, well over half of all U.K. household telecom spending (54 percent) is for mobile services. Some 18 percent of telecom spending is for fixed Internet access. About 28 percent of spending is for fixed network voice (inflated, to a certain extent, because digital subscriber line service also requires purchase of voice service).

U.K. telecom revenue grew in 2015, up £0.2bn (0.5 percent) to £37.5 billion, propelled by  (Figure a £0.5 billion (4.2 percent) increase in retail fixed revenue, itself driven by a 12.6 percent rise in fixed internet revenues. Some 0.9 million more Internet access connections were added in 2015, representing growth of 3.9 percent.

Mobile revenue actually fell 0.4 percent, while wholesale revenue fell 4.2 percent.

Enterprise data revenue also fell by one percent.

In the consumer segment, average revenue per account drove a 3.2 percent increase in telecom spending.

U.K. telecom services spending spending now accounts for 3.5 percent of total spending (not total household income).

Fixed network voice lines decreased 0.3 million, or one percent. Mobile subscriptions grew 1.8 percent (including machine-to-machine accounts).

Fixed network voice call minutes fell by seven billion minutes (9.2 percent) to 74 billion minutes in 2015 and mobile voice call minutes increased by five billion minutes (two percent) to 143 billion minutes.

The total number of outgoing SMS and MMS messages continued to fall in 2015, down by eight billion messages (7.6 percent) to 101 billion messages, although this was a smaller fall than in either 2013 or 2014, in large part because people are shifting to over the top messaging alternatives.

source: Ofcom

Termination Charges Now a Key Business Issue for India Mobile Operators

Arcane network interconnection rules are anything but irrelevant for service providers (mobile or fixed) whose revenues are directly affected by such rules. So it is that a proposal to change interconnection fees for service providers terminating calls has become a big  business issue for India’s mobile operators.

Now, an interconnection charge for terminating a mobile call generates 14 paise about two-tenths of a U.S. cent) per minute (some call this “calling party pays”).

Conversely, no termination charges are levied on calls made from one landline to another or from a smartphone to a landline number, using the “bill-and-keep” method for interconnection.

But the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) wants to change mobile interconnection to a “bill and keep” approach as well.

The has big implications. In the U.S. market, “bill and keep” was viewed as favorable to upstarts and attackers, for reasons related to traffic flows.

Simply, small challengers tend to terminate more traffic on other networks than the big legacy networks terminate on the small networks. Using one methodology, the network that terminates a call gets paid for doing so.

Using “bill and keep,” carriers are not paid for terminating calls.

So why the proposed change? TRAI believes a shift to bill and keep would make IP telephony services more competitive, as IP telephony providers would not have to pay the termination charges. As it happens, Reliance Jio, the big new player in the Indian mobile market, will use IP-based voice.

Incumbent mobile service providers would lose revenue under the bill and keep framework, which is why they accuse TRAI of setting policy in ways that favor Reliance Jio, the big new challenger.

Of course, regulators always get accused of that, irrespective of their intended objectives. It is not possible for any regulatory policy to be completely neutral in its impact. And, often, the desired impact is to upset the existing order of things. That appears to be, in substantial part, what TRAI intends.

As always, arcane network interconnection rules have real-world business effects.

50% Discount on Spectrum Futrures

As a member of PTC's Advisory Council, I’d like to extend a personal invitation for you to attend PTC's Spectrum Futures 2016 event, taking place from 19-21 October 2016 at the Marina Mandarin Singapore.

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Organized by PTC, Spectrum Futures explores the ways new capacity—and the business models needed to sustain it—can be brought online, fast, to connect two billion additional Internet users across South and Southeast Asia.

The attached flyer includes additional information, along with several of the subject matter experts on spectrum that will be participating. I think Spectrum Futures 2016 will be particularly relevant to you, and I expect you'll find many of the discussions at this year's event important to your business.  

Use this link to register for the VIP Pass: https://www.regonline.com/SpectrumFutures2016.

Select VIP Pass, then Standard Rate (if you are not currently a PTC Member). Enter discount code SF1650 to receive the 50% discount rate.

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From 10 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps in 15 Years

Consolidated Communications has launched gigabit Internet access in Roseville, Calif., just after

AT&T has launched its GigaPower gigabit Internet access service in the Sacramento market, in parts of Placer County (Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, and their surrounding communities).

That is notable in some ways because the Roseville market was one of the first in the United to get fiber to the home services from SureWest Communications, formerly Roseville Telephone Company, back in 2002. Back then, state of the art was symmetrical 10 Mbps service.

These days, that doesn’t even qualify as “broadband,” according to the Federal Communications Commission.

In roughly a decade and a half, we have gone from state of the art as 10 Mbps to 1,000 Mbps, two orders of magnitude.

Careful market selection, plus operating cost advantages, arguably are key to all the independent gigabit Internet access provider efforts springing up around the United States. That is as true for Google Fiber as for AT&T, Rocket Fiber, Ting or any other independent entity.

By definition, capital cost is basically not a source of material advantage: all technology is available to all potential buyers. Construction costs, with some exceptions, also are what they are, for all would-be suppliers. The difference is that some suppliers arguably must use union labor, while others have a choice.

Of all choices, it is the market geography which is most important, at the moment. When Google Fiber decided to build in Portland, Ore., there were no other gigabit ISPs in the market. Now, both CenturyLink and Comcast are doing so, making Google Fiber the possible third supplier in the market.

Some observers think Google Fiber’s decision to delay the Portland, Ore. build, and some in the San Francisco Bay Area, are driven by changing competitive dynamics. Google Fiber arguably once aimed--among other things--to spur key ISPs to upgrade their services.

But now that the ISPs are doing so, it apparently is more difficult for Google Fiber itself to sustain its own operations. Google Fiber arguably has succeeded in getting major U.S. ISPs to boost access speeds. So much so that Google Fiber itself has to rethink its own prospects and business model in many markets, apparently.