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Anyone who owns an Internet-connected device has dealt with the frustrations of a poor service plan. For example, if booking a European vacation a customer may choose to leave his or her smartphone at home for fear of being hit with exorbitant international roaming fees. Even at the domestic level, more consumers are hopping off of their dedicated 3G/4G connections in favor of Wi-Fi for added convenience and cost savings.
 Why You Need to Know: This move to Wi-Fi among consumers is driving Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to build out Wi-Fi footprints in swarms. In fact, 64 percent of operators have built their own carrier-grade Wi-Fi in selected areas; 43 percent have partnered with service providers to support their Wi-Fi strategy; and MNOs will deploy over 10 million hotspots by 2018, according to data from the WBA |
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As the song said, the waiting is the hardest part, and while it's fast and easy to buy and pay on Amazon, there's about a week's lag between paying and actually getting the merchandise in question. But a new program being tested in New York City may well cut that lag down from a matter of days to a matter of minutes.
Why You Need to Know: Dubbed Amazon Prime Now, the idea involves the use of bicycle messengers to transfer goods from Amazon warehouses in the area to the doors of those who ordered said goods. |
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In 2014, the roll-out of LTE has been a major focus for communications service providers (CSPs), with over 300 LTE networks now in operation globally. But super-fast data speeds and data hungry consumers have brought their share of challenges for CSPs and simply offering fast data access is not enough.
Why You Need to Know: As data usage increases on their networks, CSPs are trying figure out a way to monetize their data assets, and provide a quality-rich, personalized experience for customers accessing their services. The industry has come to the realization that an evolution of traditional telecoms networks and business models is required. |
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NFV has been voraciously hyped and with good reason; there is much to get excited about. The potential benefits to operators and communication service providers (CSPs) of enabling a virtualized and service oriented network environment are vast.
Why You Need to Know: The networking industry is so excited that its NFV gaze has focused almost universally on an idealized world in which new services are 'turned up' as part of a complete virtualized service chain. Perilously little has been said about how operators will migrate to utopia from the battlegrounds of today. |
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Now that cloud services have become part of IT's "new normal", commonly referred to as "Hybrid", it seems obvious that the approaches and tools we use to manage IT would also evolve and mature, though the pace of evolution varies amongst companies.
Why You Need to Know: CTO at Bluelock Pat O'Day wrote a special guest post where he delves into four key areas for cloud development in 2015. You don't want to miss his full analysis. |
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