Telecom Training Week 18-22 September Bangkok

For the first time, PTC has joined two separate educational events to create “training week,” designed to acquaint mid-career telecom professionals with the skills they will need to advance their careers, as well as equip them with 5G/mobile and telecom business fundamentals.

To be held in Bangkok, from 18 September through 22 September, the training includes certificates of completion for two days of 5G training and three days of instruction on the fundamentals of the telecom business.

Taught by teams of international instructors with dozens to scores of years of experience each, training week offers an intensive but compact framework for understanding:

• Industry economics and key trends
• Evolution of the mobile and fixed industry segments
• Problem-solving exercises to acquaint you with C-level challenges
• How C-level executives approach their key business problems
• What 5G is and what it means for the future of the telecom business

Specifically designed to acquaint up-and-coming professionals with the perspective they will need as they move up the ranks, taught by executives who have founded and run companies, and themselves “moved up the ranks” of some of the biggest firms, globally.

What you will learn:

• The key C-level issues in telecom
• How executives identify and approach their key business problems
• How executives deal with competition
• How top execs manage internal challenges
• How the C-suite harvests legacy revenues, grows new revenue
• How product innovation happens
• How to navigate tough markets
• What is the future of networks?
• What is the future for mobile services?
• How regulators see 5G arriving
• How spectrum policies will change
• How 4G becomes 5G
• How mobile execs can “move up the stack”

...and much more.

Learn more about PTC Academy and Spectrum Futures, the two components of training week, a week of learning to equip Asia telecom professionals with what they must know to lead their businesses.

Instructors include:

REZA AREFI

Director of Spectrum Strategy

Intel Corporation

USA

DEAN BUBLEY

Founder

Disruptive Analysis

United Kingdom

ANUP CHANGAROTH

Senior Director, Business Development & Solutions (Asia Pacific)

Ciena

Singapore

WEN-CHUNG GUO

Commissioner

National Communications Commission

Taiwan

SACHIN GUPTA

Founder

New Street Capital Asia

Singapore

TAUFUIK HASAN

Commissioner

Indonesian Telecommunication Regulatory Authority

Indonesia

BOB HORTON

Director and Principal

Horton Consulting

Australia

RUMI IIZUKA

Principal Researcher

Spectrum Utilization Research Division

Foundation for MultiMedia Communications (FMMC)

Japan

SANJAY KAMAT

Managing Partner

Bell Labs Consulting

USA

ANTOINE KASSIS

Managing Partner

Kurrant

Thailand

HEIKKI KOKKINEN

CEO

Fairspectrum

Finland

WING K. LEE

CEO

YTL Communications

Malaysia

RUSSELL LUNDBERG

CTO

Bangkok Beach Telecom

Thailand

TUAN ANH NGUYEN

Deputy Head, Radio Frequency Policy & Planning Division

Authority of Radio Frequency Management

Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC)

Vietnam

MARC OLIVIER

VP Networks & Operators, Asia & Pacific

Sigfox

Singapore

ALEX ORANGE

Director, Government Affairs, Taiwan, Southeast Asia & Pacific

Qualcomm Incorporated

Hong Kong SAR China

ALLAN RASMUSSEN

Managing Director

Yozzo Co., Ltd

Thailand

DENNY SETIAWAN

Acting Deputy Director General for Spectrum Policy and Planning

Directorate General of Resources and Standard

Ministry of Communications and IT

Indonesia

JAMES SULLIVAN

Managing Director & Head, Asia ex Japan Research

J.P. Morgan Securities Singapore Pte Ltd

Singapore

HERU SUTADI

Executive Director & Chief of Communication

Indonesia ICT Institute

Indonesia

JENNIFER WARREN

VP, Technology Policy & Regulation

Lockheed Martin Corporation

USA

DAVE WRIGHT

Director, Regulatory Affairs & Network Standards

Ruckus Wireless

USA

Mike Alexander

Distinguished Engineer, IBM

USA

Sean Bergin

President & Co-Founder, APTelecom

Cambodia

Eric Handa

CEO, APTelecom

USA

Gary Kim

Founder, Spectrum Futures

USA

Keith Shaw

Vice President, Business Development EMEA, Equinix

Netherlands

Chris Wilson

CEO, ASEAN, TIME dotCom Berhad

Malaysia

Herbert Xiong

Director, Asia Pacific Sales, TE Subcom

People’s Republic of China

You also will learn from some of the most-noted industry analysts and commentators in the mobile and fixed industries.

AT&T Launches IoT Platform

AT&T Control Center is a new platform for internet of things applications that enables the launching,management and scaling of a connected devices business.

The platform supports:

• SIM management, provisioning, and activation
• Ongoing billing and lifecycle management
• Unparalleled network global coverage

• Rate plan flexibility
• Scalable platform, managing over two billion network events per month
• Single-portal view of your devices on the network
• Web-based user interface, APIs
• Monitor SIM behavior and other events.
• Decide what condition will trigger the rules.
• Set an action to run automatically when that condition is met

source: Business Insider

"An iPod, a Phone, An Internet Communicator"

“An iPod, a phone, an internet communicator….an iPod, a phone, an internet communicator..are you getting it?” Steve Jobs said on June 29, 2007, on the day Apple introduced the iPhone, a decade ago, today. 

 

No Surprise: Organizations Using IoT Say IoT is a Top Priority

With the caveat that the findings are a bit like noting that "users of smartphones say use of smartphones is important," the Internet of things is the number one priority for 92 percent of organization executives who already use internet of things systems.

The study, conducted for the Inmarsat Research Program, and conducted by Vanson Bourne, also found that internet of things will be accompanied by changes in related areas, including machine learning (38 percent), robotics (35 percent), and 3D printing (31 percent) as underpinning “digital transformation” efforts.

The study included a survey of  500 senior respondents from across the agritech, energy production, transportation, and mining sectors, from organisations over a 1,000 employees in size, that already use IoT in some fashion.

The key findings reveal that almost all (97 per cent) respondents are experiencing, or expect to experience, significant benefits from the deployment of IoT technologies.  Improved service delivery capabilities (47 per cent), better health and safety across the organisation (46 per cent), and greater workforce productivity (45 per cent) were identified as the top three benefits to be gained from the deployment of IoT-based solutions.

source: Inmarsat

T 

The research also highlights security concerns, a lack of skills (particularly in the deployment of IoT) and connectivity as key challenges that need to be addressed in order to maximise IoT’s potential.

Almost half (47 percent) of respondents believe that their organisation will need to rethink their approach to data security and make heavy investments to meet IoT security requirements.

Some 45 percent cite lack of skills as a particular challenge for their organisation in deploying IoT, while 29 percent agree with the statement that connectivity issues threaten to derail their IoT deployments before they have even begun.

LTE Eventually Wins IoT Connectivity Race, Wi-SUN Emerges

Generally speaking, networking platforms and protocols tend to win out, in the market, because they get scale. When there are multiple competing platforms, it often is not the “first” or “earliest” contenders, but the later alternatives with scale that take most of the share.

Those of you with long memories might recall that was the case for computer operating systems, was the case for competing 4G platforms and arguably 3G before that. In the smartphone area, the eventual winners were not “first” on the scene.

So it comes as no surprise that analysts at Maravedis believe the mobile networks using licensed spectrum eventually will represent most of the internet of things connections, globally.

In the area of specialized networks using unlicensed spectrum, Maravedis believes Wi-SUN platforms for utility networks be quite important, as well. In the early going, platforms often compete based on the perceived value of specifications. Long term, commercial scale typically decides the issue.

Source: Maravedis

Source: Maravedis

AT&T Wants to Virtualize the Access Network

AT&T will conduct a 10-Gbps XGS-PON field trial in late 2017, a key step towards . virtualizing access network within the last mile network. We tend to underplay the importance of such virtualization, as a key input into the business model.

By some estimates, operating costs represent the overwhelming portion of U.S. telecom service provider costs.

Nothing else comes close, as a driver of cost, or arguably, the overall business model, in the short term. That is true only if gross revenue remains at current levels. Any serious revenue declines would cause huge pressure for the business model.

And since the access network historically represents 80 percent of total capex or opex, anything AT&T and other service providers can take to reduce opex will be quite important for the business model.

source: Deloitte

The next-generation PON trial will aim to give consumer and business customers multi-gigabit per second (Gbps) internet speeds, with the business model being enhanced by sharing of much of the fiber investment needed to support 5G trunking infrastructure.

XGS-PON is a fixed wavelength symmetrical 10Gbps passive optic network technology. It also can coexist with the current GPON technology. It can provide 4X the existing downstream bandwidth. And it’s as cost-effective as GPON.

AT&T’s vision is to put some elements of XGS-PON in the cloud, and use open hardware and software designs. Those steps will save time needed to manage, deliver, monitor, troubleshoot and provide care services to customers.

5G is a Big, and Risky, Bet on the Future

It is easy enough to point out that we are far removed from the days when telecom was a safe, slow-growing, low-innovation industry with little competition. Telecom used to be considered a "utility" industry. It retains some elements of that heritage, but now is anything but a "guaranteed rate of return" industry.

Today, nothing is guaranteed: not revenue, not profits, not customers, not the business model, nor continued existence. So pointing out that 5G will be risky is only to note that the whole industry now is far more risky than ever before.

Big bets have to be routinely placed, and 5G is no different.

Among the potential 5G business model challenges is a mismatch between the expected value of use cases and hoped-for revenue opportunities. Put simply, the gigabit speeds 5G will enable for “enhanced mobile broadband” are not generally needed, so value will be low. But operators making investments will be looking for a financial return, so there will be pressure to price faster 5G services at higher levels than 4G. But 4G still will work for most consumer applications.

How important will 4K or 8K video, virtual reality and augmented reality really prove to be, early on? And how much more will consumers pay to get such support?

At the same time, the greatest hope for incremental revenue growth might come from enterprise apps generated by various internet of things applications, even if those take longer to develop.

At least, those are reasonable inferences from what industry executives currently believe. A survey by GSMA Intelligence found 69 percent of respondents believed enterprise apps (for IoT) would be the most-important drivers of new revenues. Just 23 percent believed consumer apps would be the most-important new revenue source produced by 5G.

In fact, three of four very-important new drivers of revenue are in the enterprise space, not the consumer space. In other words, it is easily possible to argue that 5G is the first mobile network generation of greatest value for enterprise applications, not direct consumer use cases.

source: GSMA Intelligence

Still, big risks now are simply part of the industry context. My own rule is that service providers are going to need to replace at least half of all current revenue every decade, from now on.

Whether that can be done, consistently and sustainably, only on the strength of connectivity services is an open question. Moving up the stack (getting into new lines of business in other parts of the ecosystem with higher revenue, margins and value) is imperative, not optional.