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November 10, 2008

Stoke Discusses Mobile Broadband Market Outlook

By Michelle Robart, TMCnet Editor

Skilled in the area of wireless communications, Stoke is a developer of innovative, carrier-class solutions specifically designed to help operators realize the economic benefits and competitive advantages of network convergence.



 
Having spent the past 17 years in the telecommunications industry, Stoke's (News - Alert) Vice President of Marketing, Barry Hill, discusses the market challenges mobile operators will face in the coming months, what consumers can do to adapt, and what the future of wireless communications holds.
 
TMCnet: For anyone who is not familiar with Stoke, can you provide a brief overview of what the company offers, and who its customers are?
 
BH: Based in Santa Clara, California, Stoke develops carrier-class mobile broadband gateways specifically engineered to enable mobile and converged network operators to maximize the economic returns of their 3G mobile networks. Stoke's standards-based, integrated hardware and software platform - the Stoke Session Exchange (SSX) - uniquely addresses the data traffic management and cross-access mobility challenges associated with optimizing multimedia sessions for existing 3G mobile customers, and for emerging 4G mobile networks including WiMAX and LTE (News - Alert). 
 
The SSX is highly versatile, supporting a broad range of operator initiatives, and provides the foundation to realize the full advantages of network convergence over time in a cost-effective, non-disruptive fashion. It features a contemporary system architecture that is highly optimized for service delivery at carrier scale. Multi-access intelligent session management allows operators to unify their networks and obtain substantial capital and operational savings. Enhanced service creation and billing lets operators unlock all of the value in their networks.
 
TMCnet: There’s no doubt that these are troubling financial times for many people, and for many businesses. How can mobile operators achieve success during this difficult time?
 
BH: Stoke believes there is an opportunity today to create an independent interworking exchange, or in other words, a dynamic arbitrage model, whereby existing service providers could take advantage of any wireless broadband data network available and pay an interconnect fee for the time or amount of data delivered over their specific network.  This would allow the service provider to offer a ubiquitous service, without having to broadly deploy/invest in new network infrastructure that is both costly and potentially redundant at some point in the future.  
 
TMCnet: What are some the major challenges that mobile operators will face in the coming months?
 
BH: The biggest impact on the wireless industry in North America will be in terms of the investment needed to evolve the network infrastructure to support the growing demand for data services. Verizon (News - Alert) announced recently in their Q3 results that their data services business is growing at 43 percent and is now 25 percent of their total revenues. The challenge is that data services consume an in-ordinate amount of infrastructure. The future for the major cellular carriers was to be built around expanding their capacity for these new services via a new 4G network evolution called LTE, the problem is that this is a major investment in incremental network components.  Best estimated by pundits was that we would see LTE deployments in the 2010 time frame, we believe this will be pushed out at least 2 years. Basically, credit funds to expand the existing network will be tight, providing added pressure to consider existing access alternatives and partnerships.
 
In effect, we believe that there will be a push to reduce cost while looking at ways of maintaining a quality of service for their growing data service business by utilizing “whatever” network capability is available. This will provide an effective way of managing cost in tight economic times through smart internet off-loading at the service edge, and a real opportunity for the industry to open up access to their costly network investments, which would ultimately benefit their customers through new innovative services and an improved service experience. The technology to securely “anchor” these data services across multiple network access types is available today, the multi-access capable devices are there with the iPhone (News - Alert), BlackBerry, G-Phone and myriad of PC data dongles and chips.  This may just require some “open minded” thinking by the industry such that everyone benefits in the end.
 
TMCnet: How deeply will wireless consumers be affected by the current economic situation?
 
BH: Wireless consumers will not be greatly affected, in fact if the service provider community were to adopt a policy of shared resources in the access network consumers will actually benefit from the “opening” up of the broadband infrastructure through a dynamic arbitrage model. 
 
Soon carriers will be looking at alternate means of creating new value-added services by taking advantage of the explosion of new applications being created through Apple, Google, BlackBerry and Nokia (News - Alert) independent developers. The idea being that the service providers could “mash-up” new services that are a combination of their own “walled garden” services with internet centric services, to create a whole new range of value-added offerings.
 
TMCnet: What do you think major wireless operators such as AT&T (News - Alert) and T-Mobile will do to keep their consumer base?
 
BH: Recently we have seen some announcements by AT&T of their decision to acquire Wayport Networks, a WiFi Hotspot provider to enhance their broadband coverage using alternate network technology rather than increasing their current infrastructure, or at least an adjunct to their current network.  We have also seen Verizon completely flip-flop on their position in relation to WiFi.  They now see WiFi as a credible, low-cost alternative for broadband service and a cheap means of backhauling data traffic.  Last week we also saw the announcement by the FCC to support the merger of Sprints Xohm WiMax business with Clearwire (News - Alert) to create a nationwide WiMax broadband infrastructure.  So there are already multiple different access technologies in deployment across the country today.  The question they all need to ask themselves is, why don’t we all agree to interwork to provide the best customer experience without having to deploy parallel technologies which fundamentally do the same thing?
 
TMCnet: What types of new innovations will they come up with?
 
BH: We have seen the explosion of operator communities over the past couple of years with their “fave 5” or “my 5” type services. The ability to extend these unique communities based on telephony charging groups with internet communities like MySpace (News - Alert) & Linked-in, for example, could change the face of the market. The service provider supplies unique services like location, presence, group lists, connectivity and the internet communities provide reach and content.
 
In terms of the service providers, there are exciting new technologies that are providing the ability to expand throughput on existing devices, like Femtocells (News - Alert). These are fundamentally small base stations that will be installed in a small office or private home similar to a WiFi device connected to your local ISP/Fixed line carrier. This is a very cost effective way of providing a broadband experience with limited impact on the Wireless service provider’s expensive access network.  Done properly, this could be a massive upgrade on the current network with limited cost impact on the core network v’s a broad-based public network upgrade.
 
TMCnet: What are some of the creative, real-world ways consumers are using wireless communication to get through these tough economic times?
 
BH: The world of telecommunications has been promising ubiquitous broadband mobile infrastructure for years, we are now close to that promise. Once this becomes available and affordable, consumers can start really benefiting, in terms of reduction in travel, more effective use of time, balancing work & life commitments and keeping in touch with the world around them. Consumers are benefiting from flat rate data plans which allow them to not only telecommute, but use VoIP telephony which is far more cost effective. With the explosion of multi-access capable devices, users can manage their communications costs much better by taking advantage of “Quad-Play” service packages from carriers.
 
TMCnet: Comparing this tough period to other recessions (such as the dot-com bust of the late 1990s and early 2000s), how are mobile operators reacting differently?
 
BH: The biggest difference between now and the previous tough economic period is that operators are looking at a different business model where their market has changed from a very “voice” centric service offering to boost revenue, which was very easy to predict in terms of network utilization, to a “data” centric service model that is basically impossible to predict. To this end, we believe that the service providers need to fundamentally re-assess their competitive relationship and consider new models for opening up their networks such that they can sell wholesale capacity to their competitors while they create unique new service offerings that are “data centric” in every way, shape and form.
 
TMCnet: Looking ahead toward brighter times, what predictions do you have about mobile consumers continuing to utilize the benefits of wireless communications?
 
BH: Wi-Fi or femtocell short range wireless networks, in conjunction with innovative multi-access session management gateways, and improved mobile device connection manager software will ensure that subscribers get what they want: any service, anywhere, all the time. With a new generation of fundamental ingredients, the true mobile broadband experience emerges: the broadband service is always available, the application and content experience is consistent, and users are always connected.

Michelle Robart is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Michelle's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Michelle Robart


 







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