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It�s changing out there in the real telecom world, more quickly then most of us would expect. For example, applications we thought would be available years from now are popping up from within the walled garden, and outside of it. In a previous Internet Telephony article, I mentioned the potential revolution of PCDs (personal content distribution devices). At the time, I was thinking these devices would connect to mobile phones without service providers� participation. Within two months of my forecast, I was proven both right and wrong.
During the week of July 16th, Vodafone announced, for delivery in its German network, a very interesting new service as part of Vodafone�s Live! portal. �Vodafone-Mein PC� enables subscribers on Vodafone�s 3G UMTS network to stream their own MP3 music, video, or other media from their computer at home to their mobile. This is place shifting, not just time shifting, for any media type, meaning users can watch live TV programming that their computer is capturing from the broadcast signal on a TV in their home. As I noted in my previous article, Broadband Value Added Services (BVAS), like the Slingbox (which has the video portion of the offer) and Orb (which has both video and audio), could overrun the legacy carriers if they fail to take action.
Well, someone at Vodafone must be reading Internet Telephony, for the company has proven me wrong. While I forecasted the service correctly, I did not pick a walled garden operator to provide it to the market first � and not in the German market � nor did I suggest they�d use third party (non-walled garden) provider Orb to deliver it. Orb has been outside of the walled garden for its existence, until now, providing a free client and server offering to consumers to enable access to personal content. Vodafone provides a pre-configured PC installer (basically the same as you can get from Orb), which has to be installed on an always-on (broadband) connected PC. Then, the Vodafone customer can log in to the PC by using the Vodafone Live! portal from a mobile device. This is currently under public trial in Germany through the end of September. Vodafone charges users a fee of �5 per month to access Mien PC via its data service. It would appear that Vodafone�s business model is to provide a network-based
service that recovers revenue from just data pipe usage. This is exactly what I had predicted could be done to Vodafone by the likes of Google (News - Alert) and others. Kudos to Vodafone: It has seized the opportunity and made it happen. For any operator, this is a radical step away from the pay-for-play media/walled garden business model, and a positive market move.
Personal Content Distribution (PCD) is a smart move for any operator. Mobile delivery of content that the user has already paid for eliminates the content cost the operator would normally have to pay for and then bury into a subscriber charge. Consumers get the value of portal access to the service and pre-configured solutions. Operators get the same market buzz effect that Mobile TV provides without the inherent costs. Service delivery can be made via multiple access methods; there�s delivery over IP streaming media to a mobile and streaming via 3G-324M circuit-switched video via Video Gateways. This enables operators to bridge to user bases with the same solution, so operators can address the 2.5G and 3G mobile base. Could personal content distribution be a new category of content delivery for mobile devices? Will other operators follow suit and capture more revenue per subscriber with out having to pay for video content? Stay tuned. IT
Mike Katz is director of product marketing for NMS Communications. For more information, please visit the company online at www.nmscommunications.com (news - alerts).
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