Google / Motorola: what is the industry saying?

Our round up of initial industry opinion on Google's $12.5bn acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The main themes covered are: patents, impact on Android, positioning vs. Apple and other vendors, and 'Doom!' We're also asking for your take via a 2 minute online survey, and will publish the results in the next couple of weeks.
(More)

Telcos vs. Apple, YouTube, and Cable

Telco 2.0's Keith McMahon describes how consumer behaviour is changing, tablets are emerging as a 'fourth screen', and internet, cable and other major retail players are evolving digital entertainment strategies including 'digital lockers' that store consumer content in the cloud. Who will be the winners and losers, and where does this leave telcos?
(Register and view here)

Connected TV: Forecast and Winners

Our in-depth look at one of Europe's most competitive digital TV markets which reflects many global trends, such as competition between different types of content distributor (loveFilm, YouTube, Virgin Media, BBC, BSkyB, BT, etc.), channel proliferation, new devices used for viewing, and the increasing prevalence of connected TVs. What are the key trends and who will be the winners and losers? (More)

Content Delivery: BT Wholesale's Strategy

Simon Orme, Strategy Director Content Services, BT Wholesale, describes current market trends and how BT has evolved its wholesale strategy and division to serve new demands from the media industry, including media and broadcast, online and TV voting, and Content Connect delivering 'next generation content delivery'.
(Register and view here)

Next Generation TV: Virgin Media's TiVo Service

The UK's Virgin Media claim to have 're-invented TV' with their TiVo offering which offers personalised, targeted content recommendations and highly programmable storage. A short demo video and introduction by Virgin's Alex Green.
(Register and view here)

Augmented TV Opportunity: disruption, new devices and social media

Anthony Rose, co-founder and CTO of tBone, and former leading light in the development of the iPlayer, describes how social media and new devices will transform TV into a seamless social experience. What are the opportunities and who are the new players? (Register and view here)

'M-Commerce 2.0' = New M-Payments, Advertising and Customer Experiences

'Social, Local and Mobile' (SoLoMo) Internet services are 'the next big thing', say leading analysts. The secret sauce is the exploitation of the huge volumes of rich personal data that these services both use and generate. Telco 2.0 analysis, conducted with the World Economic Forum, shows that there are significant opportunities for telcos, mediacos, banks, brands and retailers to create new payments and advertising services as well as richer customer experiences. We call this 'M-Commerce 2.0'... (more)

Advertising 2.0: The Battle for Cross-Platform, Personalised Engagement

Will telcos and content companies be consigned to ancillary roles in the nascent personalised advertising market, in which Facebook, Apple and Google are building increasingly strong positions? An overview of our hypotheses, and our research and brainstorm agendas. (more)

Mobile CDNs and video distribution

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are becoming familiar in the fixed broadband world as a means to improve the experience and costs of delivering bulky data like online video to end-users. Is there now a compelling need for their mobile equivalents, and if so, should operators partner with existing players or build / buy their own? (more)

Personalised, Interactive Data Pricing

Pricing mobile data effectively is a key current challenge for many telcos. Ericsson's Stefan Hedelius presented a set of innovative real-world examples at Telco 2.0's Best Practice Live! showing personalised and dynamic mobile data pricing, including case studies for online gaming and street vending machines. (Register and view here)

Telco 2.0 Q&As on Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio innovation

Following their Best Practice Live! Presentation (you can still register and view here) here are Alcatel-Lucent's answers to our further questions on the impact and practicality of their new small, intelligent cellular radio unit called lightRadio™ (more)

Telco 2.0 'Roadmap' Report: $375Bn Growth or Brutal Retrenchment?

Over the last three years, the Telco 2.0 Initiative has identified new business model growth opportunities for telcos of $375Bn p.a. in mature markets alone. In that time, most of the major operators have started to integrate elements of Telco 2.0 thinking into their strategic plans.
 
In this groundbreaking new 284 page Strategy Report ‘The Roadmap to Telco 2.0 Business Models’, we plot the transformational path that telcos / CSPs need to follow to achieve the 'Telco 2.0' opportunities. It describes:

• six growth opportunity areas for the Telecoms industry;
• new categories of operators based on their potential to adopt the new opportunities;
• the primary strategies needed by each to evolve and thrive in the new industry environment;
• and highlights leading examples of telco business model innovation.

Please see here for more on the report, or email contact@telco2.net / call +44 (0) 247 5003 to find out more.

Strategy 2.0: The Six Key Telco 2.0 Opportunities

A summary of the six Telco 2.0 opportunities to transform telco's business models for success in an IP-based, post PSTN world: Core Services, Vertical Solutions, Infrastructure Services, Embedded Communications, 3rd Party Enablers, and Own Brand OTT Services. It includes an extract from the Roadmap to New Telco 2.0 Business Models, updates on latest developments, and feedback from over 500 senior TMT industry execs. (more)

M2M 2.0: the Money's in 'Enablers'

Our latest report on M2M 2.0 covers: M2M market growth, structure and dynamics; business models; the best role(s) for telcos; and leading thinking from Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telenor, KPN and Swisscom. It describes how 'Service Enablers' are key to the telco opportunity in M2M in addition to connectivity. (more)

RIM: R.I.P or 'Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated'?

RIM's shares have plummeted in value over the last four months, prompting an eruption of finger-pointing in the media and speculation of its demise or acquisition. In this analysis we examine whether the doom-mongers are right and what RIM's recovery strategy might be. (more)

Apple iCloud/iOS: Killing SMS Softly?

Our analysis of how Apple's iCloud, iOS5, and MacOS developments build value and control for Apple's digital platform, and their consequences on other parts of the digital ecosystem, including the impact of iMessage on text messaging. (more)

Strategy 2.0: What Skype + Microsoft Means for Telcos

In theory, Microsoft and Skype together have the resources, the brands, the customer base and the know-how to shape the future of telecoms and become a strategic counterweight to Apple and Google. Can they do it - and what should telcos' strategies be? (more)

Cloud 2.0: Telcos to grow Revenues 900% by 2014

Telcos should grow Cloud Services revenues nine-fold and triple their overall market share in the next three years according to delegates at the May 2011 EMEA Executive Brainstorm. But which are the best opportunities and strategies? (more)

Mobile Broadband Economics: LTE 'Not Enough'

Innovation appears to be flourishing in mobile broadband. At the Telco 2.0 EMEA Executive Brainstorm two weeks ago we saw working applications that enable a.) users to monitor and control their network usage and services and b.) operators to support 'dynamic pricing'. Despite growing enthusiasm for LTE, delegates considered offloading traffic and network sharing strategies as at least as effective in managing costs... (more)

Telco 2.0 Strategy: New Growth Needs New Metrics

'What gets measured gets done', and Telcos need to use new metrics to uncover and develop new sources of value fast. They also need to make WAC a 'JFDI' initiative. These and other top level Telco 2.0 strategic themes from the May 2011 EMEA Telco 2.0 Executive Brainstorm. (more)

LTE & Wholesale: Time to Get Aggressive?

We examine four examples of the growing trend of wholesale-oriented LTE operations, their key challenges and opportunities, and recommend that incumbent operators should be more aggressive in wholesale. (more)

New Business Models: Half Future Telco Growth

Senior industry Brainstormers in Palo Alto agreed that half of the telco growth available in the next 3 years would come from the new business model opportunities identified in the 'Roadmap to new Telco 2.0 Business Models' report. The other half would come from improvements to the current business model. Headline findings in brief. (more)