On April 27^th.several competing operators - Cincinnati Bell Wireless, MetroPCS, NTELOS, the Rural Cellular Association (RCA), the Rural Telecommunications Group, and Sprint Nextel Corporation all requested the FCC to consolidate into a single proceeding the upcoming review of the T-Mobile acquisition (11-65) and the earlier Qualcomm MediaFLO Spectrum acquisition filing (11-18).

“In the proposed Qualcomm transaction, AT&T seeks to acquire Qualcomm's six Lower 700 MHz D Block (6 MHz) licenses, which collectively have a nationwide footprint, and five Lower 700 MHz E Block (6 MHz) licenses in five large markets. The T-Mobile transaction includes the acquisition of an additional 50 MHz on average in the same geographic areas covered by the proposed Qualcomm transaction. Obviously, with such an overlap, these two transactions should be examined together, rather than separately.”

In Appendix B. Competitor Chart of AT&T’s April 21^st. Filing there are 567 pages of Competitor Charts for 700 MHz, Cellular, and SMR Licensees that show the Qualcomm D & E Block Spectrum alongside the AT&T Consolidated Spectrum. A Selected example for San Francisco, San Mateo and Washington DC is shown below.

As seen in the above example AT&T’s own Appendix B strongly supports the case for examining the joint impact of the two acquisitions.
AT&T may now regret not having waited to settle the Qualcomm acquisition before seeking to acquire T-Mobile. [Note: Appendix A shows the Spectrum to be consolidated between AT&T and T-Mobile.]

So now the FCC may need to review the competitive and market impact of AT&T's aggregation of spectrum in both proposed transactions on nationwide mobile telephony and broadband services.

AT&T may have trouble establishing that it really needs all the additional Spectrum.

RCA President and CEO Steven K. Berry has called AT&T’s acquisitions a ‘spectrum grab’ and said, “It is clear that AT&T is doing everything possible to gain market dominance by making not one but two major spectrum grabs in the proposed Qualcomm and T-Mobile transactions.”

AT&T is now getting increasingly unfavorable publicity – as Broadband DSL Reports notes “Press (Are) Not Buying AT&T Spectrum Claims”. The chart below is being used in multiple publications to exemplify AT&T’s overreach. It is easy visually to add together either the green 3G columns or the blue 4G columns to estimate the consolidated spectrum of AT&T and T-Mobile. It is apparent they both far outstrip Verizon.

Delay may cause problems for AT&T unless it divests properties rapidly.

The clock is running on the AT&T T-Mobile merger since the FCC established the Pleading Cycle for the AT&T T-Mobile Acquisition (WT Docket 11-65) as follows:

Filings                        Due

Petitions To Deny     May 31, 201

Oppositions                June 10, 2011

Replies                        June 20, 2011

 Despite this aggressive FCC timetable, it is increasingly likely that extensive negotiations will be required – both nationally and state by state. AT&T will probably have to divest sufficient properties to ensure competition in each market on a case by case basis to create even stronger competitors than shown on its website.

The agreement with Deutsche Telekom (DT) however, states that AT&T does not have to agree to divestitures and other regulatory conditions that would have an adverse effect greater than USD 7.8 Billion; only half of subscriber or spectrum sales value is counted towards that sum. AT&T has stated that it is prepared to divest up to 40 percent of the number of T-Mobile subscribers or approximately 13.149 million subscribers - based on the stated value of USD 578 per subscriber. But the likely buyers are AT&Ts competitors who have no incentive to move quickly or to pay full price .

But AT&T’s acquisition agreement with DT for T-Mobile USA has a ‘drop dead’ date of March 20, 2012 after which either AT&T or DT can chose to terminate the deal.

If the deal terminates because of a failure to obtain regulatory clearance there is a provision that A&T must pay DT up to USD3 Billion in cash; enter into a roaming agreement; and “transfer to Deutsche Telekom certain wireless AWS spectrum that [AT&T] does not need for its initial LTE roll-out.”

The growing opposition to AT&T may well push the deal to the fall of 2012 as we predicted in an earlier Insight ’AT&T T-Mobile Acquisition: How long will it take to close?’

At CTIA in San Francisco last week, away from the fanfare around LTE rollouts and the next dozen tablet devices (ok, I exaggerate a little), Sprint had an announcement which will have significantly higher impact on mobile broadband adoption and revenues: Sprint ID. 

Sprint ID promises to up the ante on personalization and ease current feature phone users into the smart phone ranks.

Sprint ID offers instant personalization along key themes/packs where the operator has done the heavy lifting of identifying and group related applications of interest to different persona from wallpaper to ringtones to apps. While the one click marketing line is not quite matched by reality given pesky little things like accepting terms and conditions etc, Sprint ID is a significant breakthrough in my opinion as:

• it broadens the market appeal of Smart phones to current feature phones users with a simple to understand offer in a range of device price points including the critical $49 and $99 levels.
• it tackles one of the biggest weakness of all app stores: discoverability of content and simple personalization.

Three handsets were featured at launch of Sprint ID: Sanyo Zio™, Samsung Transform™, LG Optimus S™. These three devices cover key price points in the Sprint portfolio and provide customers with a range of form factors, industrial design and brand to meet their tastes. Interesting to note that both LG and Sanyo retain the right to put their own packs on their handsets as well. This is a big win for LG as its Optimus S™ will be available for under $50 with contract giving the vendor a much needed boost in the smartphone space. Samsung meanwhile continues to shine at Sprint occupying the lucrative $149 spot with its Transform™. All three devices of course require a Sprint Everything Data plan.

However, for me the more significant impact is that operators and oems are finally realizing that customers don’t buy phones or services or apps… what they really want are positive experiences

… be that socially connected, sports, education, health and fitness, fashion etc. This is something that our User Experience team has been evangelizing for the last 7+ years. Whether its 80k apps on Android or 250k on Apple store or 10K on RIM, one common experience has been exasperation at the huge waste of time, energy and emotions in finding ANYTHING!!! Which happens first, eyes glazing over or fingers cramping with so much scrolling? Either way the net result is often a disappointing experience which the early smart phone coolaid drinkers have learned to live with.

Newbies to the smart phone arena, will certainly have less tolerance and spend less time to personalize their device and enable applications. Sprint ID is well tailored to the next wave who are taking tentative steps into the smart phone space

 

David Kerr

dkerr@strategyanalytics.com

September 23, 2010

While there has understandably been a lot of attention given to consumer apps post iPhone and the plethora of application stores that have emerged, business mobility and enterprise mobility offer huge potential from horizontal to vertical applications and from smartphones to iPads and tablets to superphones.

In both NA and W. Europe, business customers account for under 30% of users but are the dominant streams of both revenue and profits for operators. On the device side, premium priced models from RIM, Nokia, and Microsoft Mobile licensees as well as the iPhone have long been key drivers of profits in a market where low single digit margins are the norm.  The explosion of smartphone choices has led to the battle ground moving beyond the corner office, to other executive and now increasingly the midlevel manager.

With a new range of devices competing for space in the corporate market, the issue of corporate versus individual liable has become an increasing priority for IT decision makers. Add on the complexity of managing an expanding list of OS (Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, MeeGo, Bada from Samsung) and the growing importance of mobile portable devices with access behind the firewall and one can already feel a corporate migraine forming…. And that’s before we even discuss device management, mobility policy, device retirement etc. etc.

I am looking forward to CTIA Fall (San Francisco October 5-7) and in particular to the Enterprise Mobility Boot Camp moderated by Philippe Winthrop of the Enterprise Mobility Foundation. The boot camp spread over two days will address many of the issue listed above with our own Andy Brown featured in an analyst roundtable on October 6^th.  I look forward to meeting you there. Don’t hesitate to contact Philippe for passes to this the deep dive enterprise mobility event.

David Kerr

David Kerr
Snr. VP - Global Wireless Practice
Tel: +1 617 614 0720
Mob: +1 262 271 8974

Yesterday in Paris, Orange unveiled its new five-year strategic plan, Conquests 2015. The plan covers four strategic priorities:

    The conquest of employee pride – to re-build its reputation as an employer;
    The conquest of networks – covering fibre-optic build in France, LTE deployments, the monetization of mobile data traffic (read: no unlimited data plans) and green networks;
    The conquest of customers – delivering a superior customer experience and helping customers navigate through their connected/digital lives;
    The conquest of international development – targeting 2x growth in revenues from emerging markets, with total customers growing from today’s 200m to 300m by 2015.

We published a report profiling the world’s 20 largest mobile operators last week, providing a SWOT and overview of strategic directions. We knew a new Orange vision was on the way, but there are only so many events that can postpone a report’s publication. It is with relief that I can say that, in terms of the key elements of this new strategic plan, enough had been discussed in the past to allow us to predict this quite accurately.

In this report, we looked at two key differentiators for operator performance: footprint (scale) and unification (both in the sense of integrated/converged networks and the provision of integrated services). The more profitable global mobile operators have strengths in these areas and it is good to see they form the basis of Orange’s new strategy.

Orange is very much committed to improving the value of its footprint, both in terms of growing its business in Africa and the Middle East (it is suggesting roughly three-quarters of its emerging market revenue growth could come from M&A here), but also in terms of its mature market footprint, where further consolidation (after the Orange / T-Mobile UK deal) can be expected.

In terms of unification, the next-gen network upgrades are a key building block there, as well as layering in services in areas such as health, education and payments. One of the more interesting statements in this strategy launch was that “Orange must become a multimedia coach for its customers by working alongside them to make their digital life easier”, with Orange’s CEO Stéphane Richard adding that Orange “are trying to be activists for an open world”. That trusted partner role has taken over from the own-branded services/content role as a priority for telcos and it is encouraging that Orange is focusing on its key strengths there.

 

 

 

The inevitable movement to tiered pricing which started with Verizon Wireless acknowledging its plans to do so for LTE and has been accelerated with the much anticipated data plan announcement by AT&T this week.  So, what next?

• Will we see significant priced based competition for mobile data among the top US operators?
• Will we see significant movement in share of adds for AT&T as iPhone wannabees are tempted by a plan of only $15?
• What impact will lower data plans for smartphones have on AT&T’s Quick Messaging Devices and Verizon Wireless equivalent?
• How long before we see family data plans and shared usage across multiple devices?

The move by AT&T is a smart play to extend the smartphone momentum as the low hanging fruit of Apple aficionados, multimedia techies and style seekers willing to pay top dollar has been significantly penetrated.

There is no doubt that the iPhone remains the coolest device on the marketplace and the end to end user experience remains easily the best in class. So, reducing the TCO to attract the next 20% of customers to a paid data plans while educating customers about data usage levels and managing the traffic risk is very smart business in my opinion.

The lower price points will help AT&T maintain its current leading share of smartphone users and may be attractive to casual social networkers

• Although the 50 photos allowance is not exactly generous! For casual messenger, and social network status checking and moderate email the new DataPlus plan is quite attractive overall and will likely attract a portion of customers who would otherwise opt for a Quick Messaging Device from AT&T or a competitive offering from Verizon Wireless.

I do expect to see some modest price competition among the big operators

• with T-Mobile most likely to drive prices lower given their need for scale and to protect their predominantly youth centric customer base. but also expect an increasingly strong Verizon Wireless handset line up to compete strongly.

The impact on Quick Messaging Devices is in my opinion likely to be modest

• as a traditional qwerty remains overwhelmingly the input of choice for heavy messengers in the US although there is definitely room for lowering the $10 mandatory data plan on featurephones

Family data plans and data plans which allow access across multiple devices are in the pipeline

• but will probably not make an appearance until 2012+ as part of LTE offerings.

From a device vendor perspective, the move to lower priced iPhone plans is likely to put further pressure on vendors like LG who have yet to make a credible offer in this space as well as RIM who will find more competition in the consumer space.

The lower pricing on data plans will be music to the ears of ambitious new entrants like Huawei, ZTE who plan to bring mass market priced devices to the US & Europe. The lower TCO of smartphones as a result of downward pressure on service prices boost their addressable market.

Throttle or Choke.‘Net Neutrality’ proponents argue that there should be no restrictions by service providers on any type of end-user access to content, equipment or modes of communication but in April a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the FCC had exceeded its authority when it told Comcast not to ‘throttle’ BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer video exchange and related applications - even though BitTorrent was ‘choking’ performance for other Comcast users. FCC is now proposing additional regulation and Congress is getting in on the act. Lurking behind the partisan rhetoric of ‘Net neutrality’ are serious issues. It is time to deal with them. Issue 1. Harm to the Network. Ironically Comcast was trying to protect its customers from ‘harm to the network’ as the Communications Act requires. Many service providers - including many mobile operators - are struggling to manage the disproportionate traffic demands of a few heavy duty users whose peer-to-peer or high bandwidth applications slow down performance for everyone else. Solution: Some equitable form of network management is not only reasonable but essential for the broadband networks to function. Issue 2. Service Quality at a Fair Price. Insistence by ‘Net Neutrality’ advocates that everyone get the same access with the same ‘class of service’ leads rapidly to a lowest common denominator for all. When video ‘bandwidth hogs’ block more time sensitive or more valuable, low bandwidth applications there is a good case for throughput guarantees. Solution: In both fixed and mobile broadband markets, tiered classes of service for different user applications with different bandwidth requirements and different priorities at different prices will enable operators to balance broadband traffic demand with new capacity expansion. Issue 3. Exclusive Walled Gardens. The owners of broadband access have been tempted recently to consider exclusive deals with preferred application and content providers – like Google and YouTube. Often there are only one or two access providers, so small new or innovative vendors are concerned they will be relegated to a lower class of service. This is not just a US issue. In April European Union telecoms commissioner Neelie Kroes suggested that “users should be able to access and distribute the content, services and applications they want”…”Nor should telecommunications providers be allowed to block services provided by direct competitors.” Solution: Toll highway operators should not choose the customers’ automobiles. Nor should the automobile companies pay the user tolls in advance for the fastest highways. A primary reason for communications regulation is to prevent access providers from extending their power to control access to limit content choice or overcharge for services. Networks need a clear and neutral boundary between transport and applications so that choices are separate and made by end users. Let’s deal with the real challenges to delivering broadband for all - instead of firing political rhetoric at one another

 

May you live in interesting times as the old Chinese proverb goes. Well in the information, communication and entertainment industry we certainly do. Some very interesting questions face our industry whether we look at:

• the outcome of much delayed Indian 3G auction or
• the battlegrounds around HSPA+ and LTE or
• the surging Android ecosystem vs. weakening Symbian or
• the upside potential for WebOS under it new owners
• the potential disruption caused by mobile cloud phones and device

Every major technology advancement has lead to a massive disruption in the handset and infrastructure vendor community.

• In 3G, Motorola’s slim myopia led to its near ruin and has provided huge growth for Samsung and a foothold in international markets for LG and SEMC.
• On the infrastructure side 3G was expertly grasped by Huawei and ZTE leading to a new wave of M & A and a new world order which counts Nortel as a victim and seriously challenges ALU.

So how will the migration to 4G change the playing field?

• Who will benefit most on the operator/service provider side?
• Will Cloud Phones be disruptive in LTE?
• Will operators find a path to realign the traffic/revenue mix with mobile broadband devices?

I would welcome your thoughts on these key questions. Also don’t forget to join our client webinar on Thursday May 27.

 

David

The bids in Germany’s current spectrum auctions are starting to add up. With a range of spectrum on the table (800MHz, 1800MHz, 2GHz and 2.6GHz), it is the digital dividend 800MHz spectrum that is dominating proceedings – at the end of round 94 the bids totalled €1.9 billion, with nearly 90% of this bid on the 800MHz spectrum. Although there is still some way to go, the auction is already pricing the 800MHz spectrum at more than 30x higher than the 2.6GHz spectrum. The need for denser LTE networks in higher frequency bands will come, but for now 800MHz is much more valuable as it is the most cost effective for delivery of next generation coverage. However, in this instance the government isn’t leaving that to chance as it strives to close the broadband coverage gap in rural areas. Winning bidders have to cover smaller towns before they can move on to larger cities. That is a nice touch by the government. The next few years of spectrum auctions in Europe are unlikely to raise the kind of sums seen in the 2.1GHz 3G auctions of 1999-2001. So getting some public good (other than money for the public purse) out of the auctions makes sense. Building in licence rules to make sure 800MHz spectrum really is used to close the digital divide is logical as 3G/4G mobile broadband adoption soars. So if you live in a rural community that has yet to be touched by DSL/cable and are fed up waiting for a decent 3G mobile broadband signal, the sale of 800MHz spectrum for mobile services and they way coverage is being prioritized in the legislation is good news (provided you can wait a little longer for the spectrum to be cleared of analogue TV). But for the rest of the population in Germany at least, this is probably all very dull. There are only four bidders in this auction (the four existing mobile operators), so it will do nothing for competition and probably nothing for pricing either. Many operators we speak to have a similar view to TeliaSonera and will position LTE as a premium mobile broadband product as they try to pull back from what has often been quite intensive price competition in this fledgling sector.

Returning from CTIA in Las Vegas last week and with only 2 days before going off on vacation to Florida, I found myself reflecting that two of the most interesting meetings I had at the show were with mobile operators.

During CTIA I spent some time with AT&T emerging devices and T-Mobile M2M teams and was impressed with how both these units had managed to cut (or at least untie) the cord to the mother ship and avoid having innovation stifled by the Borg up at Corporate.

• AT&T’s efforts to encourage a broad range of new applications and devices has definitely paid dividends with Mr. Lurie and his team adding an impressive 1M users in Q409 as a result of new device categories (mostly PND and EBR).
• T-Mobile revealed a somewhat unheralded pedigree in M2M.

Partnership is the order of the day.

AT&T highlighted partner applications ranging from location enabled pet collars (Apisphere) to glow cap bottles to aid compliance with medication schedules (Vitality) to a very cool new tablet from Openpeak which is very different to the announced but apparently supply side challenged iPad.  Verizon Wireless and Sprint are of course also praying at the alter of open development but perhaps with less public presence.

When I think of enterprise mobility, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are top of mind but T-Mobile has in fact quietly been developing strong competency in the M2M space over the last 7-8 years.

T-Mobile offers four different SIM form factors to suit specific applications and have enjoyed triple digit growth for the last four years. T-Mobile US has quietly activated “hundreds” of different device types on its network with only a handful of devices being rejected or pulled due to network unfriendly characteristics. These devices span Telematics, Connected Energy, Telemedicine and several other applications.

So what is the common DNA of two very different operators that has allowed them to innovate and focus on new opportunities? Separation and operational autonomy to facilitate and open funnel approach to partners and speed of execution not normally associated with US carriers.

In the case of AT&T, the Emerging Devices group was chartered with developing a new space and freed from the legacy of voice & data consumer tariffs and prepaid/postpaid categories which just don’t cut it in the new connected reality where users will have multiple devices connected but used in very different ways. Mr. Lurie and his team have been able to streamline device certification and experiment across the spectrum of business models for new connected applications.

For T-Mobile, speed of certification (days not months) and the independence of being a self-contained unit (own engineers, own sales although linked to broader enterprise group) reporting to Finance & Strategy have allowed them to pursue their “easiest to do business with” approach to the M2M markets.

So, the takeaway? Innovation is alive and well at US operators but separation from the collective corporate mind is essential.

David Kerr

March 3^rd. 2010, Newton MA. USA Tariff and Revenue Strategy(TRS) service looks at the financial outlook for service providers in 2010 and 2011.  Although growth will be slow, TRS expects telecommunications to outpace the economy. The glass is definitely ‘half-full’. Real US growth is beginning to come from the manufacturing sector. US Federal Reserve has announced that January 2010 was the 7^th. consecutive month of US manufacturing growth. Output of business equipment rose 0.9 percent in January, and information processing equipment increased 1.7 percent. In UK today’s strong service sector report is stimulating talk of positive first quarter GDP growth; and the February US numbers show stronger than expected service sector growth and continued manufacturing expansion. For the telecommunications sector in 2010 the substitution of telecommunications for travel and of messaging and email for business transactions should continue to increase penetration as a percent of overall industry activity. Because telecommunications increases labor productivity it will continue to outpace the slow economic recovery, even if there is little job growth. Slowing rate of job losses has not been great news – though this is exactly how things look just before the economy turns up . Think ‘sine wave’ and ‘positive first derivative’. The slow recovery is not slow enough however, to totally depress Communications Investment. Capital expenditures (CAPEX) for telecommunications equipment and network deployment are expected to recover significantly in 2010, even if the level may not get back above that of 2008. Even as operators are laying off thousands of employees to improve competitive efficiency, they are optimistic enough to announce significant 2010 CAPEX for broadband telecom (fixed and mobile) over the next 18 months. These operators expect next generation IP based infrastructure to leverage the hardware volume of the information industry and lower their overall cost of operations. BTW: It is hard to quantify the exact impact of these savings on operator financials – but TRS is working on it. In 2010 and 2011 we expect that mobile broadband and IP based infrastructure will have the performance to begin to fill the ‘Broadband Gap’.  Mobile Broadband at 2- 20 MBps may actually be the cheaper, better way to deploy broadband services in rural and low density areas around the world. This infrastructure deployment will itself stimulate further economic growth. As April comes and the weather improves the glass may very slowly start getting fuller. Sue Rudd - srudd@strategyanalytics.com